My One and Only
Music by George Gershwin
Lyrics by Ira Gershwin
Book by Peter Stone and Timothy S. Mayer
Directed by Ray Roderick
at Goodspeed Musicals in East Haddam, CT through June 25
www.goodspeed.org
With its cadre of fleet-footed flappers and fast-tapping flyboys, Goodspeed Musicals' current revival of My One and Only delights with old-fashioned flair. At the center of this production is a star-making performance by Tony Yazbeck, singing and dancing his way from New York to Morocco, in the role created by Tommy Tune. Surrounded by a game troupe and a delicious Gershwin score lifted primarily from the 1927 Fred and Adele Astaire musical Funny Face, My One and Only (running now through June 25) is a frothy, bubbly confection that transports its audience back to the 1920s.
As with many musicals that offer up the songbook of Musical Theatre's golden age, the plot is mainly negligible. Billy, an earnest American pilot, dreams of being the first aviator to make a transatlantic flight. Edythe Herbert, the famous English Channel swimmer, arrives in the U.S. with an aquacade. Can a man with his head in the clouds achieve romantic lift-off with a woman who is being kept underwater by a nefarious manager? As soon as you sit down, you know the outcome and you don't much mind. The joys of My One and Only lie in the laughs, the dancing and, of course, the songs.
With a score that includes such Gershwin classics as "Nice Work If You Can Get It," " He Loves & She Loves" and "S'Wonderful," director Ray Roderick has a candy box of sweet tunes at his disposal. One of the other treats in Roderick's production is the clever use of projections. Theatre used to be a refuge from the non-stop assault of video screens that we face as a society. More and more, we are finding video projections utilized in theatre alongside the traditional elements of light, sound, set and costume. Sometimes video threatens to upstage the flesh-and-blood action, but in the case of My One and Only, Michael Clark's projection design only adds to the magic. We first see Tony Yazbeck flying high atop his plane, a trick projected onto the umbrellas of the chorus. A visit to the movies finds the young would-be lovers interrupting other moviegoers who are actually watching Rudolph Valentino's 1926 silent Son of the Sheik. The Act 2 opener, "In the Swim," finds us in a bubble-filled underwater wonderland.
The Goodspeed production is being touted as a "tap dance spectacular," a promise on which it delivers. The Act 1 number "High Hat" threatens to bring the house down with a white-tie-and-tails ensemble hoofing their way up and down the small staircase that dominates the Art Deco set by James Youmans. The Act 2 penultimate number "Kickin' the Clouds Away," finds the stage an uproarious collision of taps, sequins and choir robes. The choreography by Kelli Barclay mines the classic tropes of tap and ballroom dance perfectly.
My One and Only rises, and only occasionally stumbles, on the strength of its performances. The romantic leads show how a lightweight soufflé like this musical requires charm to keep it aloft. And charm is what Tony Yazbeck has in spades. A barnstormer from America's heartland, the character of Billy requires a gee-shucks, wide-eyed innocence that has all but disappeared from musicals. Yazbeck's endearing Billy wins the audience instantaneously. His athletic dancing, strong vocals and matinee-idol looks add up to the ideal male lead for My One and Only. His "Strike Up the Band" powerfully closes Act 1 and threatens to blow the back off the theatre. Yazbeck started the Connecticut theatre season underutilized in Hartford Stage's leaden Antony and Cleopatra and it is a delight to see his talents showcased in such a buoyant vehicle.
