Slay It with Music in Concert
The Green Room 42, NYC, November 2, 2019
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg
A grab bag spoof of 1960s horror films such as Strait Jacket and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Slay It with Music was the creation of Michael Colby and Paul Katz. After being successful both off-Broadway and in London, the show was brought back to The Green Room 42 for a special performance as a fund raiser for The International Rescue Committee. The producers assembled an impressive cast, as well as the considerable talents of director Charles Repole and music director Phil Reno. The result was a bit of a mixed bag; the over-the-top glitzy production and physical comedy on which such camp satires rely were impossible to recreate on the cabaret stage, and the multiple locations required a lot of description that stopped the comic flow despite the best efforts of narrator Eric Michael Gillett.
What did delight were the singers and the songs. The cast was
clearly having fun with the campy intentional cliches and silly lines (“things
were lovelier before papa shot himself;” “my slasher movie will be a scream!”).
A clever opening number, “Whatever Happened to…?
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” did what opening numbers are
supposed to do: set up the exposition and the milieu of the tale while bringing
on one of the central characters, an ambitious young tour guide impersonated by
Alex Getlin with a voice reminiscent of the young Streisand. The tragic sisters
at the center of the story were the ambitious Enid (Sharon McNight) and the
reclusive Marcy (Marianne Tatum), who carried the complicated story and a good
amount of the score. Their numbers included a tricky counterpoint trio, “My
Darling, My Dearest,” with the addition of their obsessive servant Zachary
(played by the indispensable Eddie Korbich); the three carried it off
wonderfully. Korbich also had a showstopper called “In Love,” which showed off
his impressive top notes.
“I Gotta Get Her Back” proved to be a great doo-wop number for leading man Tom Wopat, with great harmonies Getlin and Caroline Conceison providing back-up. Wopat was very busy throughout the evening, playing a variety of men in the lives of the sisters; he brought his masculine energy and sturdy baritenor, though a more flexible performer might have brought greater definition to the characters. Conceison was cast as a nosy neighbor; she had her showstopper in “I Know a Secret.”
Hopefully, we’ll see more of Conceison and Getlin, and spending time with the veterans in the cast was a joy. If the program didn’t quite come together, it was still a fun evening.
