Bad Points:
1. Truncated script, impossible to follow. 2. Merman and Sinatra are HIGHLY uncomfortable sharing the stage. Sinatra is trying to act with Merman, but she puts up this wall you can almost see. When they kiss, she is so obviously NOT kissing him back that you feel sorry for the poor shmoe. A matinee idol and he can't get *Ethel Merman* to kiss him believably? 3. Merman is past her physical prime and shouldn't be in tight sexy outfits. However, she blows the roof off with "Blow Gabriel Blow," so who cares about the dress?
Good Points: 1. The Cole Porter music is beautifully delivered. 2. Bert Lahr. Still in his prime. 3. Sinatra and Merman working with Lahr. They can't stand each other on stage, but put either of them with Lahr and they come alive. Merman in particular seems overjoyed to be singing "Friendship" with Lahr, which they introduced fifteen years earlier in "DuBarry Was a Lady." Twenty years drops off of her for this one number.
This is very definitely worth seeing at least once, just for Sinatra singing Cole Porter music live, and to see Bert Lahr and Ethel Merman in the kind of Broadway show for which they became famous.
ALSO: Lahr tries to break Merman up onstage. As Reno, she is supposed to marry a Lord Oakleigh. Merman played Annie Oakley in "Annie Get Your Gun" eight years earlier. Lahr says, "He just wanted to make sure that you became Annie Oak... uh Lady Oakleigh." She doesn't break.
1. Truncated script, impossible to follow. 2. Merman and Sinatra are HIGHLY uncomfortable sharing the stage. Sinatra is trying to act with Merman, but she puts up this wall you can almost see. When they kiss, she is so obviously NOT kissing him back that you feel sorry for the poor shmoe. A matinee idol and he can't get *Ethel Merman* to kiss him believably? 3. Merman is past her physical prime and shouldn't be in tight sexy outfits. However, she blows the roof off with "Blow Gabriel Blow," so who cares about the dress?
Good Points: 1. The Cole Porter music is beautifully delivered. 2. Bert Lahr. Still in his prime. 3. Sinatra and Merman working with Lahr. They can't stand each other on stage, but put either of them with Lahr and they come alive. Merman in particular seems overjoyed to be singing "Friendship" with Lahr, which they introduced fifteen years earlier in "DuBarry Was a Lady." Twenty years drops off of her for this one number.
This is very definitely worth seeing at least once, just for Sinatra singing Cole Porter music live, and to see Bert Lahr and Ethel Merman in the kind of Broadway show for which they became famous.
ALSO: Lahr tries to break Merman up onstage. As Reno, she is supposed to marry a Lord Oakleigh. Merman played Annie Oakley in "Annie Get Your Gun" eight years earlier. Lahr says, "He just wanted to make sure that you became Annie Oak... uh Lady Oakleigh." She doesn't break.