By Steven Suskin
19 May 2002

TOVARICH DRG 19025
DRG has continued the first wave of its Broadway Collector Series with Tovarich. This was one of those "personal appearance" vehicles, a show that would presumably never have gotten off the ground without the presence of a major box-office star. And shouldn't have. As is often the case in such ventures, said major box-office star was out of her league and at the end of her rope. Vivien Leigh was in bad shape, emotionally; six months into the run, she suffered a nervous breakdown during a matinee and never returned. Eva Gabor was rushed in as replacement, but Tovarich shuttered within a fortnight.

This was a show with no purpose, really; it had no material, either. The score was entrusted to songwriters Lee Pockriss and Anne Croswell, who had attracted some attention for their 1960 Off-Broadway musical Ernest in Love. This was a pleasant but not overly-impressive adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest, with some sweet songs. I'd have to guess that Pockriss and Croswell were not the producer's first choice for Tovarich, and that the project was first turned down by everybody else.

The score has some catchy tunes. "All for You" is moderately pleasant, "Make a Friend" is moderately cheery, and "Wilkes-Barre, PA" is lively. This last, a Charleston, has a vibrant dance arrangement by some uncredited arranger. The combined effect of the 15 songs, plus overture, is negligible. (This recording, with a different playing order and more extensive liner notes, was previously released on CD as part of the Broadway Angel series in 1993.)

Ms. Leigh's performance is pretty much what you might expect from a non singer under the circumstances; if you didn't know she was a major international celebrity, you wouldn't guess it from this recording. Jean Pierre Aumont, a non-singing French movie star, does somewhat better; he gets by with his charm. (They cast an Englishwoman and a Frenchman as Russian nobility, while other Russians and assorted French were played by Americans. That's Broadway.) Margery Gray and Byron Mitchell, as a pair of teenagers, do most of the work. The squeaky-voiced Gray is especially helpful, energizing things whenever she turns up. (She is best known to cast album fans as the "Picture of Happiness" girl in Tenderloin, and better known as Mrs. Sheldon Harnick.)

Pockriss came to the theatre with a couple of pop hits in his pocket, the melodic "Catch a Falling Star" and the innocuous novelty "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini." He collaborated on at least one other musical with Croswell, Conrack, which was produced by the Goodspeed Opera House in 1991. Pockriss has also composed a musical version of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, which is scheduled for production in Houston next fall. As for Croswell, she moved on from Tovarich to the 1968 super-disaster I'm Solomon, and hasn't been heard on Broadway since.

Tovarich is not without interest. But if I must listen to one of these Russian-emigree-in-Paris flops, I'd much rather hear Anya.

—Steven Suskin, author of the new "Broadway Yearbook 2000-2001," "Show Tunes," and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books.