With over 60 years on Broadway already behind, starting with “West Side Story”, and going on through “Chicago” and “Kiss Of The Spiderwoman”, and with Elaine Stritch discovering what we all already knew, retirement doesn’t work without a Plan B, Chita Rivera is now the Queen Of Broadway. A great presence, a great performer, who, at 82 years of age, can still carry a Broadway musical.
At the Lyceum, in the 14 year gestating final musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb, book by Terrence McNally, “The Visit”, she takes this bizarre Goth out revenge yarn, and makes it a thoroughly entertaining 90 minutes. But with all her abilities it’s so wrong:, it is really two stories, decidedly by choice, battling it out, and the effect is a major creep out. The European town of Brachen is all spinning burial caskets, gray faded lives, yellow shoes, and a world bankrupt in nearly every level, especially Anton Schell (Roger Rees) the storekeeper who betrayed a poor teenage gypsy girl and is now a failure of a storekeeper with children who ignore him and a wife who blames him. The girl, more than 60 years later and now billionaire widow Claire Zachanassian (that would be Chita),returns to her hometown, with two eunuchs and a judge in tow, to offer the town millions a piece, if they will put Anton to death for his betrayal and banishment of 17 year old pregnant Claire. Meanwhile, a young Anton and Claire (John Riddle and the lovely Michelle Veintimilla) perform a pas de deux reenacting their love story thoughtout the piece.
Many things work very well in the Brechtian tale, among them a score with two fine songs, “You You You” and the cheerfully spending the Anton bounty “Yellow Shoes” with the townspeople finally letting loose. If you ever want to price up what Andrew Lloyd Webber did to Broadway, listen to “The Visit”‘s score, it might not be a major piece of music, but it runs circles round “Phantom”, “Wicked” and countless other faux Broadway musicals. . Also, yes, Chita is everything a Grande Dame should be, a woman filled with self-assurance and power, but insanely in love. Rees -who I’ve enjoyed since Nicholas Nickleby, as her faded and disgraced love interest, doesn’t even try to hide from his degradation: he is the face of failure in a strong yet egoless performance.
But, really, what we want from Chita is a “Woman Of The Year”… we want a high spirit very musical romp, not this downcasted miserable look at lives wasted. It is, in fact, a big time bummer. As star vehicles go, why are we watching “The Threepenny Opera”. Sure, it is better than every musical since “Passion” but it is still a downer experience. Did they really drag all these octogenarians out of their beds to tell them this?
The lyricist Fred Ebb died in 2004 and so this is the last of the collaborations from the team that brought us “Cabaret” and “Chicago” and personally I am happy to have it here, but, well, let’s hope Ms. Rivera gives us one more show, something a lot more fun, before she retires.
Grade: B