I swear, Roundabout is the Bermuda Triangle of good musicals that get lost in their dreadful productions, from SHE LOVES ME to PAL JOEY. I didn't hate the production, although I thought a lot of the arrangements stank to high heaven and Graciele Daniele knows about as much about period 1930s hoofing as I do about neurosurgery. Too many (two - count 'em - two) interpolations, the loss of "Plant You Now, Dig You Later" one of my faves, too many uncredited lyric rewrites, and perhaps too much new book, the most curious rewrite being the elimination of the fact that Joey is only the latest of a string of kept men by Mrs Vera Simpson; I think one of the strong points of the original book is that she's as s;eazy as he is only she's got money and he's got only his sexuality.
There are some good performances, although the much-praised Stockard Channing performance is based on her great comedy timing; she was nearly always a half tone flat and Richard Rodgers would never have accepted her singing of "Bewitched." I also think the book and the director are wrong to sentimentalize her. I loved Martha Plimpton and I liked the rewrite to make her an aging chorine desperate to keep her job by any means. The production's aiming for a dark edge, but it's in the original; it's all in the direction to bring it out, i believe. I just didn't like the handling of the score and the new arrangements at all.
