Modern Audiences Don't Get Happy

While the big-budget Kander and Ebb musical Curtains prepares for its debut on Broadway this Thursday, another one of the collaborative team's long-forgotten classics showed for a two-week run as part of the Musicals Tonight! series. Chronicling the story of the prodigal son returning home to his family in Quebec, Canada, a simply staged production of The Happy Time opened at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre on March 6.

The Happy Time hasn't seen the lights of Broadway in nearly 40 years, but casting director Stephen DeAngelis managed to get not one, but two members of the original 1968 Broadway cast to return for this particular staging. Unfortunately, the years have worn down the show's efficacy. The material felt dated, and the story revealed itself to be more like an ancestral fable which would have been better shared over milk and cookies than as a piece of live theater.

The plot focuses on Jacques (Timothy Warmen) and his beloved godson, Bibi (David Geinosky). Jacques, the Peter Pan turned eternal adventure-seeking bachelor of the Bonnard family, decides to return to his home in St. Pierre, Quebec. Bibi yearns to be just like his godfather, and Jacques' presence in St. Pierre makes for a poignant coming-of-age experience for both boys.

Tony award-winning actor George Irving, who performed in the original Happy Time as Phillipe alongside renowned theater and film star Robert Goulet, returns as the family patriarch, Grandpere. The wit and wisdom the seasoned actor brings to this performance acts as the one link that propels the narrative forward.

Irving stumbles as he shuffles alongside Warmen and Geinosky in "A Certain Girl," but somehow the 84-year-old carrying a wieldy libretto while trying to do a box step comes off as endearing rather than embarrassing. Unfortunately, this isn't so for the other actors on stage. Their use of scripts encased in black three ring binders for the entire two-and-a-half-hour show makes for a cumbersome prop in many of the dance numbers.

French accents proved to be another challenge for this cast. Some, like Michael Masters as Phillipe, lose the French-Canadian inflection when they are required to sing or to project, while Warmen doesn't even make an attempt to sound provincial.

Perhaps Geinosky does the best job with his role as a pubescent boy struggling to find a suit of manhood that fits him. Balancing childish tantrums with moments of insight like that in "I'm Sorry," the audience sympathizes with Bibi who wants desperately to join Jacques in his carefree lifestyle while having to obey his curfew and the rules of the house set by his father, Phillipe.

Many of the songs meant to be upbeat and even racy for their time in the 1920s fall on deaf ears. Far from vaudeville classics, "Angel's Garters" and "Boom-Boom/Life of the Party" are kitschy show tunes that seem to be off a shelf of neglected musical theater disasters.

The scenery is sparse while the costuming is often haphazard. Some of the clothing, like the school uniform, is appropriate given the nature of a period piece, while other outfits lean towards a more modern look and feel.

The revival of The Happy Time suffers from a lengthy script, a somewhat uncommitted cast, and outdated songs, but in the end Jacques finally reveals the moral of the story. We must remember that our memories are the most beautiful pictures in our heart, he says. And while Kander and Ebb's The Happy Time may be in its golden years, the end result is just as sweet as dunking that warm chocolate chip cookie in a tall glass of milk-even with a contemporary audience.