When New Casts Happen to Old Broadway Musicals

I promise never to be insufferably snobbish about Broadway musicals again. "Wicked," which I saw yesterday just to humor my daughter on winter break, was brilliant on every level: book, songs, set, performances. And, with my unerring nose for news, I happened to see it with a new cast, just announced yesterday on the Playbill site: Julia Murney as Elphaba, Kendra Kassebaum as Glinda, Sebastian Arcelus as Fiyero. Jayne Houdyshell as Madame Morrible (not listed in the Playbill announcement but another recent addition) was also a standout.

In his re-review of the 2003 musicial on July 15, 2005 in the NY Times, Jason Zinoman dismissed what was then a "mostly new cast" as lacking "the one element that won over even the musical's detractors: personality." No such problem with the current lively contingent.

But Jason dismissively describes the musical as "perfectly pitched to teenagers"---specfically, teenaged girls. Maybe I'm still a teenager at heart (unlikely), but I was enchanted from beginning to end. That's because this play belongs to that distinguished but exceedingly rare genre---the tale in which the smart woman is the central character and even gets her man at the end. (Okay, so he was transformed from a hunk to a scarecrow. Nothing's perfect.) Maybe it's a sign of the times (or my naïveté), but I found the political satire clever and pointed, not "self-serious," as Jason called it.

Ticket Buyer's Tip: The $55 seats on the side of the orchestra are such a deal! You miss out on a little of what's happening at the rear of the stage, but you're close to the action, instead of in the rear balcony. And (by buying two single tickets) I was able to get them just a couple of days in advance.

But what's this e-mail to NY Philharmonic subscribers, which arrived in my inbox today? They've cast Kelsey "Grammar" (sic) as Henry Higgins in the orchestra's upcoming (Mar. 7-10) fully costumed, semi-staged concert production of "My Fair Lady." Can Grammer really fill the slippers of Rex Harrison? They must have read this review by Neil Genzlinger of the estimable Michael Cumpstey's 2004 stint as Higgins at Princeton's McCarter Theater:

It helps that Mr. Cumpsty makes no effort to imitate Rex Harrison, who created the role of Henry Higgins on Broadway in 1956 and put it on film in 1964. He seems more ornery, more fusty, calling to mind not Harrison but Kelsey Grammer's television character, Frasier Crane.

Why have an imitation Grammer when you can have the real thing? What difference does it make if Cumpstey is a far better stage actor? The Philharmonic's e-mail cites Grammer's status as a "multi-Emmy and Golden Globe winner for 'Frasier,'" but mercifully ignores his brief but ignominious stint as Macbeth on Broadway: 8 previews and 13 performances.

One nice touch: They've cast Marni Nixon, the singing voice of Audrey Hepburn in the movie version of the musical, as Higgins' mother.

Guess I just blew my resolution not to be insufferably snobbish about Broadway musicals!