On Stage
KANFER, STEFAN
On Stage BIRDS ' AND MUSIC BY STEFAN KANFER A JL Jk. mid the national backslide there is reason for hope. This year. World War II has filled more column inches and hours of air time than O.J....
...In The Good War, Studs Terkel's oral history of World War II, Maxene Andrews recalls those days...
...Although the show is temporarily shuttered, there are plans to reopen shortly...
...Interviewed by Barbara Walters (Barbara Broughton), he positioned himself as the national spokescat: The White House chef Cooks me catfish pie...
...When the place reverberates with the sounds of explosions, they slow the tempo and warble such pop classics as "Keep the Home Fires Burning...
...That she had, yet her voice remained as brassy and congenial as it was in the days when she and her siblings were no less a part of the '40s than gas rationing and fireside chats...
...Douglas MacArthur, Hiroshima, or Yalta...
...The creatures who passed by in revue format were played by very human actors...
...I'm smiling with my tail, too late for hiding...
...There are no rules to follow...
...Here are Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer witli "My Shining Hour," from the time when everything they wrote seemed to be on everyone's Victrola...
...It is, essentially, a stack of old 78 r.p.m...
...So I was curious about an Off-Broadway musical that announced itself as a celebration of cats and dogs—plus iguanas, goldfish, snakes, and frogs?specimens of which had been our house guests at one time or another...
...the spoken words are cotton batting to support the jewels...
...It was a feeling of—not futility...
...w T T hen my children were of an age to collect animals, we once had 22 pets on and off of leashes, and in and out of cages...
...Throw a ball and chew a slipper Look, I'm sitting, lying, jumping through a hoop...
...Even the music seemed to knit the nation...
...Ordinarily I have a low threshold for cross-dressing, but damned if Busch doesn't play with scarcely a hint of his usual overstated camp, chanting in a creditable contralto and acting the part of a shooting star along the lines of Anne Sheridan...
...Here is Cole Porter, writer of that most un-Porterish Western, "Don't Fence Me In...
...I'll whine a bit, they like it when I whine On the piano there s a bagel and it s mine...
...It featured the work of some 17 composers and lyricists, and every one of them gave the impression of having lived with, despaired over and loved various mammals, amphibians and avians...
...This time theperformers had more daunting assignments, alternately purring and barking, playing the scales as a snake in one sketch, growing fur in another, all fuss and feathers in yet another...
...The time is 1944...
...The American appetite for fresh celebrities in crime, politics and show business (the three are not mutually exclusive) will demand different faces and new outrages...
...En route, she and the cast provided an education in pop history...
...Marian gets exuberant support from her teenaged niece, Katie Gammers-f lugel (Kelli Maguire...
...a versatile drummer, Jo Sterling (Marcy McGuigan...
...The costumes by Robert Mackintosh are right out of a Life photograph of the period, and so is Michael Lincoln's lighting design...
...In one of the most acutely observed scenes, a dog (Jennifer Simard) sang the immortal "There's a Bagel on the Piano,' with Jilting music by Ben Schaechterto lyrics by Faye Greenberg that could have been written by Jake, my own mutt: There's perfection on the piano with a shmear...
...The Trial may have seeped into the culture, but one day, after the spate of books and TV movies, it will seep away...
...Maxene Andrews...
...Later, a song called "Peculiar," with lyrics by Dan Kael and music by the versatile Schaechter, told the story of a geeky kid (Christopher Scott) who treasured an unusual pet (Michelle Azar): The girls I know at school They laugh behind my back...
...They whisper in the hall when I walk by Since freshman year They Ve made it clear I'm peculiar...
...Then again, this is not a book show...
...The place: a London Air Force base where eight members of an all-girl orchestra are attempting to put on a show for the troops...
...This made an appealing portrait of an adolescent in extremis...
...The War, on the other hand, is five decades old and you can still get a heated argument by bringing up George S. Pat-ton...
...tragic ("Please don't throw the turtle down the toilet") and even topical, as in the case of "First Cat," with music and lyrics by Thomas Tierney...
...It was like everybody in the United States held on to each others' hands...
...He: Inside I'm a normal person Who longs for a hand to hold She: Inside I'm a lonely boa With a cold-blooded heart of gold Whenever Pets...
...Socks, the Clintons' pet (Christopher Harrod), indulged himself in along self-congratulatory riff: Telephones are ringin Off the hook Random House is beggin For a book...
...But the show goes on, and it's worth a visit, as much for the score as for the remaining cast...
...My fan mail is pilin Up to the sky...
...It is one of the triumphs of Swingtime Canteen that each member of the troupe seems to be making it up as she (and he) goes along...
...a piano playing fireplug, Topeka Abotelli (DebraBarsha...
...Maxene, of course, is irreplaceable...
...and three unnamed but talented wac musicians, Kim Bonsanti, Mary Ann Mc-Sweeney and Micki Ryan...
...before the ages of rock and punk and rap, soldiers and civilians, teenagers and their parents sang and danced to the same tunes...
...If the numbers seem somewhat corny today, they remain infectious...
...Simpson...
...Homo Sapiens in the part of vertebrates lower down on the food chain may signal a trend in Off-Broadway theater...
...German bombs periodically knock out the lights and diminish the power of the microphones, but the ladies gamely carry on...
...The animal took her turn onstage: Most people turn away They fear my darting tongue They shiver when I look them in the eye I make them scream So it would seem I'm peculiar The relationship was further clarified in the chorus...
...Their stoical rendition cannot disguise a catch in the throat...
...You can't keep a Good War down...
...For this improvisatory air director Kenneth Elliott deserves credit, as does choreographer Barry McNabb...
...The so-called book, by Linda Thorsen Bond, William Repicci and Charles Busch, is not up to the rest of the musical...
...I hope so...
...Small wonder that her entrance line brought down the house at the Blue Angel Supper Club: "I feel as if I've aged 50 years...
...But there was an even more pathetic individual than he...
...Doing a solo, conversing with the audience, switching easily from "Bei Mir Bist Du Schon" (including several verses in the original Yiddish) to "Pennsylvania Polka," she gave a glimpse of a period that is almost out of sight and sound...
...Pets...
...records come alive...
...a saxophonist who doubles on banjo, Lilly McBain (Jackie Sanders...
...About the only thing debaters will agree on is the unprecedented social cohesion of the '40s...
...at Theater East turned out to be an outstanding example of truth in advertising...
...The term "dumb animal" did not apply...
...No mention was made of a Perot cat, but doubtless when the curtain goes up again some mewling feline will have a Powell howl...
...I'll act all cute and chipper...
...Pardon me, but on the piano: is that soup...
...And I defy anyone to ignore the authentic pain of separation in songs like "I'll be Seeing You" and "You'll Never Know...
...The leader of this aggregation is Marian Ames (Charles Busch in drag...
...tended toward the saccharine, the score became impudent (Parrot: "I can talk, can you fly...
...And there are plenty in this diadem...
...For half the summer it was supplied by the late and much lamented Maxene Andrews, who played the part of...
...But I'm too busy On my re-election campaign...
...It was a little short on plot, but made up for it with a plethora of tails...
...Swing-time's premise is as elemental as an airraid drill...
...While a lot of songs scaled the charts in the '40s, only the best composers and lyricists stayed on top...
...I defy anyone to keep his feet still during "Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive" or "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy...
...And pretty soon it will be disappearing...
...I'm making my move...
...The protean Helen ButJeroff conceived, choreographed and directed the production...
...Ineed a plan of action, I could pee as a distraction...
...Bein' number one Could drive most cats insane...
...Mine, all mine...
...Urging on her/his charges, Marian, the canteen girls, and eventually the audience, belt "Sing Sing Sing," "Swinging on a Star," "How High the Moon," "Bugle Call Rag," and other up tunes...
...The songs were romantic...
...Although all the other females (and the female impersonator) look to be in their early 30s, Maxene was 79 and made no attempt to hide her age...
...The producers of Swingtime Canteen are keenly aware of Noel Coward's dictum, "Strange how powerful cheap music is," and have loaded their show with 31 surefire hits from the War years...
...each had at least an eighth grade vocabulary...
...Now the bagel on the piano s deep inside...
...Here is Frank Loesser, pre-Guw and Dolls, just beginning to make a name for himself with "Love Isn't Born, it's Made" (music by the redoubtable Arthur Schwartz...
...I used to be this poor cat From Arkansas But now they want an imprint Of my paw...
...Until then, I salute the five performers who displayed more energy than a zoo, and other composers and writerstoo humorous to mention...
...It was wonderful...
...A member of the Andrews Sisters trio, she speaks of the epoch when she, Patty and LaVerne were the national songbirds: "I remember we sang 'Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree With Anybody Else But Me' up in Seattle when a whole shipload of troops were sent out...
...A nostalgic enterprise like this needs a centerpiece...
...Swallow...
...The brassy chan-teuse, who died during her vacation from the show, gave Canteen the authenticity of a veteran who had seen and sung it all...
...All the mothers and sisters and sweethearts sang with us as the ship went off...
...Mine...
...Last time out I applauded an actress in the part of Sylvia, a mixed breed puppy...
...Leap, grab, bite...
Vol. 78 • October 1995 • No. 8
