George Street Playhouse offers a revised version of this Arthur Laurents musical, a Tony-winner in 1968.
By: Stuart Duncan
Hallelujah, Baby! is a message musical that relies on a few good songs, blockbuster performances from an extraordinary company and a book that insists on pounding repetitiously how little we have done in this country to improve race relations throughout the decades.
The show was originally staged in 1967 and won a Tony for Best Musical in ’68, a year of sparse entries. We follow a talented 25-year-old girl, Georgina, with no inclination to bow and scrape to achieve success. She greets us in every decade, always the same age, always fighting for success and always facing the same spoken and silent obstacles. Her mother may take maid’s jobs, but not Georgina. Her suitors (one white, the other black) follow her from decade to decade as well, and always she resists their efforts to help.
Only the music changes and the company takes the 16 songs, plus a few reprises composer Jule Styne, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green (with a few additional lyrics by Amanda Green, daughter of the late Adolph) and belts or caresses them, using all new orchestrations.
George Street regular and big favorite Suzzanne Douglas heads the cast as Regina, and in that role gets to sing the title song plus some gentler, softer numbers which may not have exclamation marks, but are pretty. "My Own Morning" and "Now’s the Time" are examples. The latter was the closing number in the 1967 production and would be here except that the show has been whipped up-to-date to cover the last three decades not terribly convincingly, however.
Ann Duquesnay, a Tony-winner in her own right (for Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk), plays Regina’s mother and steals whole scenes. The biggest moment comes well into the second act when she gets to comment on her exciting, somewhat aggressive daughter and sings "I Don’t Know Where She Got It" complete with every clue as to exactly where the talent came from.
But there’s much more in this troupe: Curtiss I’ Cook and Stephen Zinnato are terrific as Regina’s friends and would-be suitors, decade after decade. When they team up on a combination soft-shoe, part-retro, the opening-night audience realized it was musical theater at its most inventive, most charming and roared its approval.
That opening-night audience was like a "who’s who" of show business Jule Styne’s widow, Betty Comden, Adolph Green’s widow plus, of course, his daughter and the book writer who returned to work on the project again and direct it, Arthur Laurents.
Hallelujah, Baby! may still lack a book, but the performances more than cover that flaw. The show travels to Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage for a 13-week-run and there is hope for Broadway after that.
Hallelujah, Baby! continues at George Street Playhouse, 9 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick, through Nov. 7. Performances: Tues.-Fri. 8 p.m.; Sat. 2, 8 p.m.; Sun. 2, 7 p.m. Tickets cost $36-$66. For information, call (732) 246-7717. On the Web: www.gsponline.org