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WPCNR ON THE AISLE. By John F. Bailey. Theatrical Review. April 4, 2009:

 

Page 1…Good Evening, Mr. and Mrs. Broadway, Walter Winchell here, (tappity tap tap telegraph ticker):

 

Dateline: FLASH!  Elmsford, New York Funny Girl, the Broadway icon of 1964 based on the showbiz career of legendary but real Fanny Brice, the song, dance, and schmaltz doll  of vaudeville the first half of the twentieth century  is a tear-jerking, inspiring sentimental bottle of seltzer  spraying laughs, tears, and  dreams  across the stage where you’ll meet old family and friends from the past right out of Flatbush .

 

 

FLASH!  It  introduces a  brand-new charmer to follow to the Great White Way –  A local girl who makes good!  Morristown, New Jersey’s own Jill Abramovitz,  Graduate of Morristown High is shown in the comic “Brides” Number, Fanny Brice’s famous debut in the Ziegfeld Follies. Funny Girl has never been revived on Broadway, and there’s a reason for that: it was Streisand’s show. Ms. Abramovitz takes on that challenge at WBT and succeeds spectacularly. Photos, Courtesy, Westchester Broadway Theatre, By John Vecchiola.

 

 

 

From Ms. Abramovitz’s  honest treatment of the signature song People, made lushly poignant by Ms. A’s rich contralto and soul-baring voice – stopped the show to wait for all the “bravos.” In a voice more sincere than Streisand’s, more passionate, (but admittedly not as delicately nuanced as Barbra’s rendition of People), Ms. A. makes People her own.  Her duet with Grant Norman playing her love, Nicky Arnstein on People in Act 1 is enchanting and perfectly matched. In this scene the romantic couple combine on You are Woman, I am Man.

 

 

 

 The revival spins the dreams Broadway is made of creating the vaudeville Ziegfeld Follies era again. It introduces a new Jill to thrill Broadway in the years to come: Jill Abramovitz takes on  the legendary demanding Barbra Streisand creation of Fanny Brice and does it her way, delivering not-quite-Barbra ( but, let’s face it, Mr. and Mrs. Broadway, there is only one Barbra?), but delivers the goods with a voice that rings through the theatre with power, grace, sincerity and knockout bring-the-house down style!

 

This kid’s got the energy, spirit, moxie – can’t-keep-a-trouper down personality that fits Ms. Brice to a nose, and I think Ms. Brice  would have admired. Though Ms. Abramovitz nose is just right.

 

The Streisand admirer accompanying yours truly,  Brenda Starr, (the long-stemmed rose), was pleased, impressed with the way  Ms. Abramovitz stepped into the Streisand spot. Ms. Abramovitz stepped up to the big time. It takes guts to take on an icon role, and the kid delivers a gutsy brash, totally confident performance in this virtuoso demanding role where she’s onstage just about all the time.

 

 

Comic, what’s there not to laugh at here?  Abramovitz evokes the schmaltz and shtick of the Old New Amsterdam Theatre and the Winter Garden when the Follies were playing. Her zany high energy dance routines in the famous Brice Follies debut number, Brides,  where she careens into other bridesmaids, sent spinning out of control by  her family-way stomach into other dancers – a comedy routine the original Brice invented departing Florenz Ziegfeld’s choregraphy – captures the Brice comic touch that Abramovitz  delivers . It takes talent to dance clumsilly  intentionally and make it believable.

 

Page 2!

 

Ms. Abramowitz  as Fanny Brice(front and center) in the number that Ziegfeld sees and gives her her break, performing Cornet Man with Rusty Reynolds playing cornet as Stubb Taylor.

 

When we first meet Fanny, she’s an ugly duckling trying to get a part, and talks Eddie (played with sympathetic pathos by Kilty Reidy) into working with her on the lead part in Coronet Man. When she performs this baby with just right amount of comedic mistakes – she got laughs  from the WBT audience aplenty — and she gets the part thanks to intervention by Nicky Arnstein played by Grant Norman. In the movie Nick  was portrayed by the Egyptian Clark Gable, Omar Sharif.

 

 Norman lacks the dashing male animalism of Sharif that sparked that movie, but that being said, he gamely manages to fill his role as Fanny’s love of life booming out his duets with the redoubtable Ms. Abramovitz. The first scene they meet is pitch-perfectly played by the two – when Fanny takes one look at him…and in a paradody of  Maria (from West Side Story—which debuted six years before) she sings…”Nicky Arnstein….Nicky Arnstein….the most beautiful name…” She is pitch-perfect,  raptly love-at-first-sight, as is he. The pair  cavort well in a Baltimore hotel – teaming with electric intensity on You Are Woman, I am Man.

 

The first Act is capped by Ms. Abramovitz’s raucous Don’t Rain on My Parade as  Fanny leaves the Follies to follow her guy (Arnstein)  to New York.

 

Page 3

 

 

Louisa Flaningam as Fanny’s Mom (in green dress)  who runs a saloon steals the show holding her own from the natural scene-stealer Abramovitz. Flanagan delivers some of the funniest lines of the show.  The great company is holding Ms. Abramowitz aloft (in gold dress) after her first opening night with Ziegfeld.

 

When told she needs to feel young again, Ms. Flanagan says, “I’ve already been through that!” When Fanny leaves her home for Nick, she says. “My job is done.”  Her comic interactions with the poker players of the old Brooklyn neighborhood are funny bridges moving the plot along. You’ll love her lines throughout.

 

Page 4

 

In Act II, Fanny and Nick are settled down, and married life is celebrated by Sadie, Sadie, Married Lady. It is a tribute to Ms. Abramovitz interpretation of this role that her infatuation with Nick appears very real throughout. You feel he genuinely makes her happy. Though Ms. Abramovitz sometimes swallows or delivers a punchline too quickly – you do not have the option of a retake to get it right. With each night the Jill Abramovitz Fanny Brice will be spot-on.

 

As Fanny supports Nick with money from her fabulous show business earnings, and his failures mount she stands by him. But he resents it. His reprise of Don’t Rain on My Parade is a strong counterpoint and he shows he can hold his own vocally at least with Ms. Abramovitz charisma.

 

The ability of Fanny to go on despite repeated heartbreaks from Nick endeare her to the audience – here is the show must go on spirit that makes us love Broadway.  Especially when the hurricane of 1926 wipes out his gambling establishment, and she is preparing for opening night. The knockout number “Rat-a-tat-tat” features Abramovitz-Brice clowning at best as a Jewish private in the American Army in a blood-red, patriotic extravaganza, giving audiences of today a feel for the Follies that used to be.

 

 

From the opening scene with Fanny in her dressing room awaiting her husband to arrive back from prison, when she begins to reminisce – she has you from “Hello,” and when she takes off into I’m the Greatest Star” – you’re gonna like her, I guarantee it. (Talk about stealing lines.)

  

Page 5

 

Lighting by the sungod, Andrew Gmoser is superbly evocative on the “Brides” number, the “Coronet Man” sequence, and the People number. Choreography by  Michael Susko reaches back in time to simulate the stately precision of Ziegfield extravaganza numbers, aided by a worthy investment in costumes by Matthew Hemesath. The orchestra sounded a little light with some opening night clunkers – but overall this is a workmanlike effort driven by a daring lead performance.

 

 

Jeff Tanski’s direction has pulled the cast together in a way that makes  all characters seem to relate and appear interested in each other and caring, a part of the goings-on. It captures the family of showbiz. The set design is not elaborate and the stage is barely large enough to give the epic style of a Ziegfeld show, but the WBT tries. This is easily the largest cast WBT has assembled in quite sometime.

 

 

Page 6

 

Ben Hecht, the playwright , a contemporary of Brice said of  the real Fanny Brice: “Theatre audiences never adored any performer more than Fanny. It would be impossible for an audience to laugh louder, weep more copiously and applaud more violently than Fanny’s audience did.”

 

 

 

Abramovitz captures that side of Ms. Brice – the earthy side of Brice and the appeal of the underdog you can’t keep down. It has always worked for Broadway it works in Elmsford, too, thanks to the way Jill Abramovitz carries this show. The audience loved her, bravo-ing  performances a number of times in the show – rather unique for this audience. I have not heard that before here in almost a decade of reviewing these shows here. You should go on out and see her, and get a great dinner too. You’ll be glad you did. You can say you saw her when.

 

Ms. Abramovitz is moving on up! She stole the show at the White Plains Performing Arts Center last April, as Hedy LaRue in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, then theCitizeNetReporter praised her: “Abramovitz has some of the best crackup lines in the play and she delivers  them perfectly getting laugh out loud guffaws from the audience.”

 

Funny Girl with its sendups of Brooklyn culture at the turn of the century, its melodrama, and its star –“laughs” and charms  nightly  through June 14 at Westchester Broadway Theatre. For information, go to their website at www.broadwaytheatre.com. The Box Office: 914-592-2268.

 

BEFORE THE ACTS…

 

 

 

 

Allan Gruet, longtime distinguished public relations director for the WBT, presented the 2009 Bob Fitzsimmons Scholarship of $1,000 to Archbishop Stepinac Senior, Thomas DiCarlucci.  Photo by WPCNR.

 

DiCarlucci is a member of the Stepinac stage crew, ever since his freshman year and has served in eight full-length productions. Mr. DiCarlucci will attend Manhattan College this fall, majoring in electrical engineering.  The Fitzsimmons award, named for Stepinac graduate and former p.r. director for the WBT, who died unexpectedly in 1992. The Scholarship was established in his name by WBT.

 

The fundraiser to sustain the scholarship is coming up on April 21 and features John Treacy Egan and Christine Pedi, Joe Venice and His Band, The Lighthouse Protege Choral Ensemble and a special performance by the Stepinac High School Cast of Curtains!.

 

You get a dinner, including tax & gratuity, for just $50 a person, $40 for children, seniors and students, with 35% going directly to the Fitizsimmons Scholarship Fund. Call the Box Office and get your ducats today.

WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. By John F. Bailey. April 3, 2009 UPDATED 5:50 P.M.E.D.T.: City Executive Officer Paul Wood, through spokesperson Susan Garofalo confirmed to WPCNR the city is beginning the process of binding arbitration with the police and fire unions to resolve the matter of the agreed-on wage settlements  rejected by the Common Council December 17, by 5-2. At the time Wood told WPCNR,

“We’re disapointed that what we considered a good contract for the City was rejected. I’ll have to speak to the union and see if we go back to the negotiating table or to mediation. “

Wood, through the spokesperson today, (Ms. Garofalo),  said the city had been in arbitration with the unions ever since the council rejected the 3.75%, 4% and 4% three year contracts with the two unions. Ms. Garofalo, asked if the council knew the city had gone ahead to the binding arbitration procedure, said that Mr. Wood said the council did know of the decision to go to binding arbitration. 

 One member of the Common Council, Rita Malmud told WPCNR, she was unaware the wage disagreement was going to arbitration, until WPCNR called her today. Glen Hockley, the councilperson, told WPCNR when asked if he knew about the decision, said “I believe so.” Asked how he knew, Hockley said, “I heard it on the street. I haven’t gotten anything in writing about it.”

Joseph Carrier, President of the White Plains Fire Fighters Local 274, speaking to WPCNR said the  firefighters’ union  had agreed with the city to enter into “interest binding arbitration, and we are still in the process of picking a panel. Carrier said a panel of three persons, one representing the union, another the city, and a third, the arbitrator will hear presentations by representative of the union.

Carrier said the police and the fire unions will participate in separate arbitration panels with the police union stating their case to a panel of police rep, city rep and an arbitrator, and the fire fighters union rep presenting to a panel of a firefighter representative, city representative and an arbitrator.

Ms. Garofalo told WPCNR that the city has “just selected” an independent aribtrator, (not from a state agency), but did not name the person. Carrier said the aribtrator for his fire fighter arbitration panel has not been presented to the union as of yet.

Carrier said the issues involve “wages and certain other items,” but stated “we’re willing…happy to settle for what we negotiated last fall with the Mayor, 3.75 and 4 (for the next two years) which is in line with comparables.”

Councilperson Rita Malmud contacted by WPCNR to see if the council had agreed privately to binding arbitration said WPCNR’s call “was the first time I’ve heard of it. I have no details. I don’t know anything about this. I’ve been given no information.”

Councilman Benjamin Boykin, President of the Common Council, was left a message, asking the same question. Boykin this week said he could not comment on budget adjustments until he had seen the city budget Monday. He told WPCNR he would be sharing budget concerns once he received the budget Monday evening.

Boykin said he would discuss council budget deliberations with candidates for Mayor from both parties as well as their ideas. 

Melissa Lopez of the Mayor’s office said Mayor Joseph Delfino, now officially a lame duck Mayor, said he would seek ideas and input from those running to succeed him from either party.

The two year committment based on any arbitrator decision essentially would lock the city into rolling over the present budget ($161.7 Million) to pay for a 3.75% increase in 2009-10 and roll over again in 2010-11 to cover such settlements. The wage increases would also set a pattern for the teamsters and the CSEA unions as well assuring possible automatic increases of the budget in a time of revenue shortfalls amounting to an estimated $9 Million this year, as estimated by the City Financial Officer, Gina Cuneo-Harwood.