Fluoride & floss at High Button Shoes

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There is a wonderful institution in New York City. It is one of my favorites and it brings me such joy. It is the City Center Encores! Series. It is the best idea and I am beyond grateful somebody thought of it. This theatrical series has brought me such joy over the years (also such sorrow because they produced shows I wanted to see SOO badly at times when I didn’t have the cash and I missed them). Focusing on the good, though, it was here that I saw Chicago, Wonderful Town and Gypsy before they landed on Broadway. I also saw the astonishing Anyone Can Whistle, the glamorous Grand Hotel and the beautiful Big River. There have just been too many memorable nights at Encores! to list here.

The Encores! Series was created to showcase concert versions of Broadway (and eventually off-Broadway) musicals that had only played Broadway one time, usually with their original orchestrations. After a while, the series began to include shows that had played New York more than once, but not that often, and thanks to the series, shows that were rarely seen in New York were revived on Broadway. Over the years the ‘concert’ versions of these shows were fully realized productions, just with an orchestra on stage – few scripts, sometimes no scripts, were in the hands of the actors who were performing on elaborate sets with elegant costumes and full out dance numbers. The program has evolved into one of the best nights in the theater one can get in New York — and people make sure to get to them because unless something special is planned, they run five days.

Tonight at City Center, we saw the first night of High Button Shoes, a Jule Styne/Sammy Cahn musical that opened in 1947 and ran 727 performances, making it an honest to goodness hit. The play was based on a semi-autobiographical Stephen Longstreet novel called ‘The Sisters Liked Them Handsome’, and it followed the funny adventures of his family when they get mixed up with some Atlantic City con men. Light on plot, the original production relied on comedy and dance numbers by Jerome Robbins, all of which emulated the Mack Sennett film comedies. Though High Button Shoes toured the States, was produced in London’s West End and eventually became a television teleplay, it has not appeared in New York City since it closed in 1949.

At Encores! the cast of High Button Shoes features Michael Urie, late of Torch Song, thrice Tony nominated Kevin Chamberlin, Betsy Wolfe, whose star on The Great White Way grows with each new role, and Chester Gregory, sorely missing from the Broadway stage for the last three years; and, like the original 1947 production, this High Button Shoes has a gargantuan cast of singers and dancers to fill up the enormous stage in epic ensemble numbers of differing moods and intentions. To be very to the point, all of these actors are incredibly talented and doing a wonderful job with the material they have been given. Particularly magnificent are the vocals of this cast – the melodies swell and the harmonies are tight. The dance numbers are lovely at times, athletic at others and very, very pretty. Smart was the choice to have choreographer Sarah O’Gleby recreate the original Jerome Robbins choreography for the numbers ‘Bathing Beauty Ballet’ and ‘I Still Get Jealous’. Also wise was the decision to have Ann-Hould Ward costume the piece because the play is from an era that runs rampant with bright colors and festive clothing design, which Tony winner Hould-Ward totally achieves. Allen Moyer’s set is equally colorful, albeit rather simple and sparse at times, which is fine because it leaves more room for the dancers to employ their craft. The entire evening is quite visually pretty.

And sweet.

So, so sweet.

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During the intermission I looked over my husband’s shoulder to see what he was texting to a friend and I read ‘This play is so sweet it makes Carousel look like Exorcist The Musical.’ I didn’t expect Spring Awakening. I didn’t even expect Best Little Whorehouse. But I didn’t know it was possible to sit in a theater and watch a musical play that was sweeter than The Music Man. I choose The Music Man because this play reminded me so of the more famous musical that happened ten years later. There are two con men, a gaggle of women in big hats, a Barbershop Quartet and a small town chasing the main con man. Only, there are more than a couple of places where The Music Man is a little naughty, a bit suggestive. The only thing that High Button Shoes suggests to me is that I brush my teeth. And floss, too, because some of the 71-year-old dialog is pure corn. Right off the cob. Where John Rando made his best call was when he asked Michael Urie and Kevin Chamberlin to play the con men and then either advised them (or allowed them) to stick to the time honored vaudeville techniques of just setting ‘em up and knocking ‘em down, which is precisely what they did, and quite masterfully … or, perhaps I should have said Schtick to the time honored vaudeville techniques.

Michael Urie is a most charming actor. I have long admired his work on stage and on television. It can be said that I am a fan. He handles the lead role of Harrison Floy through the employment of a remarkable choice: he plays part of the play in his own inimitable way and the rest of the play in a brilliant homage to Phil Silvers, who originated the role in 1947. Mr. Urie brings all the care and craftsmanship for which he is known to a role that is, at best, silly and, at worst, ridiculous. It’s not a nuanced or layered script or character, all that is needed are some clowns committed to their clowning and a corps de ballet able to mix their own brand of clowning in with some fouette turns. Fortunately for the audience at High Button Shoes, that is exactly what they have here because Misters Urie and Chamberlin are perfectly matched in expert comic timing, pleasant singing voices and an obvious attraction to one another. I don’t mean a romantic attraction, I mean a talent attraction. When they are on stage together the two clowns leading this charge have a clear chemistry, an obvious reverence for the style of comedy and a palpable respect for what it is to lead a company of actors. They give as good as they get to each and every performer with whom they share the stage, a glorious thing to see, and something audiences actually don’t see every day.

High Button Shoes is a silly show, and they have done everything that they can with it, except innovate it, which simply is not possible. It has a pleasant enough score but not the most memorable. It has a super corny, incredibly dated book, and it can get boring if you don’t have the right attitude. Indeed, tonight many of the audience members sitting in our section couldn’t be bothered to applaud after musical numbers. As a matter of fact, other than the spectacularly staged ‘Bathing Beauty Ballet’ and (my personal favorite of the night) ‘I Still Get Jealous’, the most applause from the audience came for Rob Berman and the orchestra after the Act One Overture and the Act Two Entr’acte. However, I went to see this play I had never seen before because I wanted to see what musical theatre looked like in 1947 – and though it isn’t what thrills me when I go to the theatre today, there is merit in going to this play. These people, Styne, Cahn, Robbins – they are history, they are legend, and any opportunity to learn more about their work is an opportunity to take. And these actors, Urie, Chamberlin, Wolfe, Gregory, they are the actors who keep Broadway and New York Theatre thriving. Attention must be paid, as the saying goes.

BUT.

Do hit a dive bar on your way home, to shake off the sugar.

High Button Shoes runs about 2 Hours 10 Minutes with one intermission. The show runs through May 12, 2019 at City Center – 131 W 55th St (between Sixth and Seventh avenues) New York, NY 10019

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