"Nice Work" Indeed

Nice Work If You Can Get It at the Imperial Theater

            There were few musicals during this Broadway season—or any other, for that matter—that seemed larger than life, glitzy and glamorous and resplendently reminiscent of a bygone age of laughter, joy, and enforced black-tie dress code.  I am happy to say that after the experience of viewing the new musical Nice Work If You Can Get It, with an assembled score of singles by the Gershwins, that I have seen the Promised Land.  That is to say, I’ve seen the possibility that every musical can exude the pure jubilation that washed over me from this marvelous production, starring (memorably) Matthew Broderick and Kelli O’Hara, with a book by Joe DiPietro (Memphis) and directed/choreographed by the brilliant stage-mistress Kathleen Marshall (who performed the same duties for one of my recent favorites, Anything Goes).

            DiPietro plucked classics from such musicals such as “Oh, Kay!,” “Lady Be Good,” and various Gershwin-scored films for Nice Work, then linked them in an impressive display of talent and created the story of a wealthy playboy, Jimmy Winter (Broderick) who falls for a bootlegger in disguise, Billie Bendix (O’Hara), whose pseudonyms include Gertrude and Bobbie Billie, all while she’s storing her ill-gotten booze in the cellar of Broderick’s spacious Long Island beach house.  Judy Kaye makes an appearance as a tightly wound Prohibitionist who clashes hysterically with Billie’s co-conspirators, Cookie McGee (a supremely talented Michael McGrath) and Duke Mahoney (Chris Sullivan).  All this while singing and dancing to some of history’s greatest songs (the title number; “Sweet and Low Down;” “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off;" “S’Wonderful;" “Fascinating Rhythm," and “They All Laughed”, to name a few) —not bad for only two acts.

            While Matthew Broderick is not exactly a dynamic stage actor (nor is he, as his character proclaims, “very good-looking”), that’s part of his appeal and part of what made him so great in 2001’s The Producers.  His unthreatening and slightly goofy style is endearing, and he has a sweet and quiet voice not unlike that of the great singers of the Gershwins’ time.  Kelli O’Hara, meanwhile, is a fantastic, belting whirlwind up on stage, with a readiness to do anything the script might ask.  And it asks a lot.  The great thing is that the cast delivers.

            Even supporting characters have their star turns.  Michael McGrath is a superb Cookie McGee, who shines in his duet with Judy Kaye’s entertaining Duchess Estonia Dulworth, a mash-up of “Sweet and Low Down” and “By Strauss.”  Stanley Wayne Mathis portrays a police chief after the bootleggers’ blood who sings, quite beautifully, parts of “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” and “Delishious.” The dancers are nimble, quick, and beautiful to look at, and Marshall has instilled the fast-paced steps of the Roarin’ Twenties into their routines.  Flapper dresses are prevalent; pinstriped suits even more so.

            The book, while it is fun and ties the numbers together especially well, does have some weak points.  The jokes are rather repetitive and seem to pile up, especially at the end, when DiPietro makes a ten-minute scene out of humdrum references to a stalled Congress and the utter uselessness of American government, as well as some ill-placed swipes at prohibition, which understandably go right over the audience’s head.  If Joe DiPietro had as good a taste in humor as he did in music, he’d keep it simple and subtle, as actors like Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly did in films with scores by the Gershwins.  Just let the songs speak for themselves.

            But even above the din, they do.  Nice Work is a fantastic musical with an inspired cast and creative team, and makes brilliant use of every Gershwin piece imaginable.  Even as the curtain falls, the orchestra triumphantly blasts the electrifyingly perfect strains of George Gershwin’s magnificent masterpiece Rhapsody in Blue, which not only makes the audience happy to be in New York City, but happy to be watching Nice Work If You Can Get It.  As the title song asks, “Who could ask for anything more?” I certainly couldn’t.