By Cynthia Citron
Give yourself an early holiday present and rush to see The Grand Tour,
the best musical to hit L.A. in many a year. And when it’s time
for curtain calls, stand up and cheer for Jason Graae, as I did, for his
spectacular performance, his extraordinary voice, and his deliciously
light-footed dancing.
And give another cheer for John Ganun, whose coupling with Graae makes them
the most entertaining duo since Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.
The Grand Tour has a long history. As originally written in 1944 by
Prague-born Jewish poet, playwright, and novelist Franz Werfel, iit was
called Jacobowsky and the Colonel. That same year it opened on
Broadway in an adaptation by S.N. Behrman, staged by Elia Kazan. The film
version in 1958 was called Me and the Colonel and starred Danny
Kaye. And finally, in 1979 came the musical, The Grand Tour, with
book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, music
and lyrics by Jerry Herman, and the inimitable Joel Gray in the lead.
The musical was not a success, however. It closed after two months,
leaving Herman and Bramble to mourn it as “the show we loved and lost.”
But what goes around comes around, and Herman and Bramble have returned to
the scene of the crime (but without Michael Stewart, who died in 1987).
A solid rewrite allows them to bill this new version, which opened at the
Colony Theatre in Burbank on November 5th, as “a world premiere
revision”. And aren’t we glad they stuck with it!
The Grand Tour is set in 1940 in France, where a wistful, melancholy
little man (played by Graae with self-effacing charm) is working his way
across occupied Europe to escape the Nazis. His name is S.L.
Jacobowsky and he is a Jew. He has already migrated from Poland to
Berlin to Vienna to Paris, but he is a survivor, as he makes clear in his
opening song, “I’ll be Here Tomorrow.”
Having secured “the last available car in Paris” for his escape to
the seaport of St. Nazaire, he is only momentarily stymied by the fact that
he doesn’t know how to drive. But there stands the car onstage,
wittily constructed from a varied collection of suitcases and trunks.
And here comes Colonel Tadeusz Boleslav Stjerbinsky, a pompous, overbearing
anti-Semitic Pole (played by
Ganun) who also needs a ride to the coast. Predictably, he disdains
the idea of traveling with such a low-class non-entity, but urged on by the
company in a comic production number, he agrees to do it “For Poland”.
But first he must make a detour to pick up his lady-love, Marianne, played
with sweetness and grace by the wonderful Tami Tappan Damiano. Whereupon
this trio embarks on a series of adventures: a train ride where they jiggle
through a song called “We’re Almost There”; an impromptu picnic; a
secret Jewish wedding; and a stint as circus performers.
Marianne is charmed by Jacobowsky’s ability to get them out of jams, by
his unflappable composure, and by his overriding sense of humor. She
calls him her “antidote” to the stiff Colonel, who bemoans this turn of
events by singing a bittersweet “More and More I Like Him Less and
Less.”
These wonderful songs, with their enticing melodies and clever lyrics, are
accompanied by ebullient dances choreographed by Peggy Hickey and a
musical quartet conducted by Jeff Rizzo. (As an aside, I have to say it is
a constant amazement to me at the caliber and abundance of talent we have
available to us here in Los Angeles. And especially for musicals:
dancers with marvelous voices and singers who can dance the stage alive.
We are truly blessed.)
Evan Weinstein has directed this 10-person cast with joy and panache.
Each of them, except for the principals and Gordon Goodman, the S.S.
Captain, plays a multitude of parts, filling the
stage with much bustle and activity. But the show-stopper comes with
the thrilling and exuberant dance executed by Jacobowsky and the Colonel
to cement the respect and friendship that has developed between them.
And while they fly all over the stage they sing the awesome affirmation,
“You I Like.” The number brings down the house, both during the
show and when the song is reprised by the entire company at the curtain
call.
The Grand Tour is a musical that is hard to classify. It is sometimes
considered a comedy, sometimes a tragedy. Its title refers to the
long, meandering trek of refugees wandering through
Europe, a somber and cynical contrast to the traditional extravagant tours
undertaken by wealthy Americans earlier in the century. But though
the players in this fine production project a blithe good humor and a buoyant
and exhilarating optimism, there is a poignant moment at the end of the play
that rivals the last dramatic moments in the movie Casablanca.
But comedy or tragedy, The Grand Tour is not to be missed!
The Grand Tour will continue at the Colony Theatre, 555 North Third Street,
in Burbank, through December 4th.
This review also was heard on the Ira Fistell Show, KABC
Radio, 790 AM
|