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According to Broadway lore, following opening night of ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY leading actress Madeline Kahn, utterly exhausted from the performance, informed theatrical impresario Harold Prince that she hoped he didn't expect her to give that sort of performance every night. Within the first month or so of the run Kahn called upon her understudy on at least seven occasions. There is some question as to whether she quit or Prince fired her, but the end result was the same: Kahn was out and understudy Judy Kaye was in--but before Kahn went out the door she participated in making the original cast recording, something for which we can all be grateful.
In its original form, the work was an unpublished 1930s play by Charles Bruce Millholland, which was reworked into a very popular 1932 stage comedy titled TWENTIETH CENTURY. When the play ended its run, it was transformed into a film with John Barrymore and Carole Lombard which became a minor classic of the screwball comedy genre. In the 1970s Harold Prince became interested in the show, and with his backing the famous team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green came into write the book and lyrics and notable composer Cy Coleman took on the score. The result was a deliberately flyweight comedy with exceptional sets, costumes, 1930s-style comedy script, and spectacularly memorable operetta-like score. It opened in 1978 with Madelin Kahn, John Cullum, Kevin Kline, and Imogene Coca in the leading roles and it received general positive reviews and a slew of Tony nominations.
The story concerns a theatrical director and producer, Oscar (John Cullum), who has gone broke--but finds himself on board the same train as one of his former stars, Lily Garland (Madelin Kahn), and sets a plan in motion to regain her love but more importantly to get her signature on a contract for his new play, a musical take on Mary Magadaline. But Lily, now a great film star with an even greater loathing for her former director, refuses, at least until Miss Primrose (Imogene Coca) comes across with a check for two hundred thousand to back the show. Lily ultimately agrees to do the show, but it then transpires that Miss Primrose is a religious nut and her check isn't worth the paper its written on.
Unfortunately for all concerned, Prince had miscalculated the financial aspects of the play, and like his earlier production of FOLLIES, ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY was simply too expensive to turn a profit unless it sold every seat at every performance. It didn't, and the musical faded after about four hundred performances, a critical success and a financial fiasco. Since then ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY is something of a "lost play," a musical that was extremely famous at the time but which has never received a significant revival and has therefore faded from the public mind.
Whatever the case, the score and lyrics are spectacular and the cast delivers everything you could want and then some. Madelin Kahn is truly the roundhouse punch here, and while she is best remembered today for her comic turns in various Mel Brooks movies, she was a remarkably gifted vocalist. Most of the songs in the show are set pieces, duet pieces or multi-vocals, and Kahn is perfectly placed in such songs as "Veronique" (in which she recalls how she rose to stardom) and "Babette" (in which she debates the relative merits of a drawing room comedy vs Oscar's proposed production about Mary Magdaline.) Perhaps the highlight of the entire show is "I've Got It All," a vocal duel between Oscar and Lily as he attempts to regain her confidence and she repeatedly brushes him aside. And John Cullum is every bit Kahn's equal with such wildly funny pieces as "I Rise Again" and "The Legacy," and his duet "
Kevin Kline was something of an unknown when he appeared in ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, but it is obvious from his performance here that he wouldn't be unknown for long. His duet with Kahn is truly delicious. And what one can say of Imogene Coca? She was not a particularly gifted singer, but she knew how to sell a song, and her portrait of the religious nutcase Miss Primrose, with such songs as "Repent" she gives what must be one of the most hysterically funny turns in Broadway musicals of that era.
The soundtrack is nicely recorded and the CD comes with a fairly elaborate booklet that gives some information about the background of the play. Actress Kristen Chenowith has recently expressed an interest in reviving the musical, and one can only hope--it is hard to imagine anyone taking over Kahn's role, but if anyone could it would Chenowith. In any case, this is a must have for musical fans. An absolute knockout.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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