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NEW YORK -- At last, pure escapist fun has come back to Broadway.
I'm not talking about the self-congratulatory wit of critical darlings such as Avenue Q and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, or even the crackling showbiz satire of Spamalot and The Producers. I mean the good-old-fashioned grand old time offered by the Roundabout Theatre Company's The Pajama Game (*** 1/2 out of four), the most exuberant revival of a Golden Age musical comedy since Susan Stroman's The Music Man.
Game, which opened Thursday at the American Airlines Theatre, is directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, who shares Stroman's flair for handling classic material with both reverence and joyful ingenuity. This 1954 romp about a pajama-factory superintendent who falls for a union member isn't the enduring marvel that Music Man is, but Marshall milks its considerable charms for all they're worth.
Those charms owe partly to Game's small-town spirit, which Marshall indulges without condescension. Her exhilarating production numbers range from a sexy Steam Heat to a rollicking Hernando's Hideaway.
The latter becomes a showcase for the piano-playing prowess of Harry Connick Jr. Though a bit stiff at first, Connick makes the superintendent's earnestness convincing and wields a self-deprecating charm.
The real revelation here, though, is leading lady Kelli O'Hara, who has brought a sterling soprano and a winsome presence to several fragile ingenue roles. But as the union gal, she's as sharp and sassy as Doris Day in the '60s, and reveals a warm, caressing lower register that builds to a gleaming belt.
Derek McLane's set and Martin Pakledinaz's costumes are similarly yummy, though the real razzle-dazzle is provided by humans onstage, among them Michael McKean and Roz Ryan in savvy comic turns.
After a somewhat lackluster Olympics, it's a treat to watch a Game in which all the players are winners.
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