Susan Granger’s review of “Nice Work If You Can Get It” (Imperial Theater)
Obviously riding the coattails of the Tony Award-winning revival of the Cole Porter musical “Anything Goes,” this is a jukebox compilation of George and Ira Gershwin songs – and pales by comparison, even though what we now think of as ‘book’ musicals did not really begin until Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma.” As a result, there’s no connective narrative tissue or emotional relevance attached to each song.
Inspired by “Oh, Kay” (1926) by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, the Jazz Age book by Joe DiPietro (“Memphis”) introduces a much-married Manhattan playboy, Jimmy Winter (Matthew Broderick), who unwittingly becomes involved with a tomboyish bootlegger from New Jersey named Billie Bendix (Kelli O’Hara), whose gang is hiding hooch in the cellar of his ritzy Long Island estate. His obvious infatuation infuriates not only his pampered fiancée, Eileen (Jennifer Laura Thompson, who appears to be channeling madcap Madeline Kahn), the avant-garde dancing daughter of Senator Max Evergreen (Terry Beaver), but also his droll mother, Millicent (Estelle Parsons), who holds the purse-strings to the family business. Providing comic relief, there’s Duchess Estonia Dulworth (Judy Kaye), Eileen’s avidly Prohibitionist aunt who, literally, swings from the chandelier after tough-talking Cookie (Michael McGrath), posing as a butler, spikes her lemonade with gin.
Having become the toast-of-the-town in recent musical revivals of “South Pacific” and “Pajama Game,” soprano Kelli O’Hara bubbles like vintage champagne, especially when director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall (“Anything Goes”) inventively re-imagines “Someone to Watch Over Me” to include her cradling a rifle. Marshall scores again when dancers emerge like shimmying, shimmering froths from a bubble bath. And there’s no topping Kelli O’Hara’s rendition of “But Not For Me.”
In contrast, it’s remarkable how lackluster Matthew Broderick’s performance is. Having enjoyed screen success in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and Broadway acclaim for playing deadpan opposite Nathan Lane in “The Producers,” he’s now chunky and clunky, seemingly unable to make the transition from naively boyish straight-man to romantic leading man.
Derek McLane’s opulent 1920s sets are a visual delight; Martin Pakledinaz’ vintage costumes are fanciful; and Peter Kaczorowski’s textual lighting enhances the mood-changes.