It's not a minor problem that ten minutes into the opening, I had trouble buying the premise, that Vanessa Williams had waited eight years for Jason Alexander to become an English professor and marry her. In the original, Dick Van Dyke and Chita seemed like a match made in heaven, so I was on board from the word go. Otherwise, I thought the casting was great, although Chinna Phyllips didn't have the voice of either Susan Watson (stage) or Ann Margrett (screen), and she couldn't do her songs justice. I thought Reinking's choreography was a bit claustrophobic, although the kids were energetic and adorable and really evoked a sixties innocence. Strouse was about 30 when he wrote the music, which I think epitomizes the melodiousness of the best of Broadway musicals. Every number is catchy and so many remain in the canon of unforgettable theater hits. As for the book, the farcical treatment of small town America is hilarious, but I think you need to have been alive in the early sixties to appreciate it fully. Finally, if you need the best excuse to check out this version, it's Tyne Daley as Alexander's bullying mother. Having played in Birdie and Gypsy (as Mama Rose), she has established herself as the comic mother from hell, her franchise for all time. It's like she's possessed, and her performance is mesmerizing.
Review of Bye Bye Birdie
