By Steven Suskin
18 Apr 2004

THE THING ABOUT MEN [DRG 94772]
I am all for original cast albums, really; as far as I'm concerned, every musical deserves to be preserved on disc. One cast album might have a larger potential market than another, but that's okay. Every musical has its fans (or most musicals, anyway), and why shouldn't they have the opportunity to savor the scores? It is not unknown for cast albums to bring after-life to short-lived shows. And I'm not talking about Candide and Anyone Can Whistle, here; the eminently worthy Floyd Collins, for one, would surely have disappeared from view had it not been recorded.

The Thing About Men is unlikely to be confused with Floyd Collins. Jimmy Roberts and Joe DiPietro's musical, which opened at the Promenade in August 2003, had a longer run than Floyd's limited engagement at Playwrights Horizons, but that's neither here nor there. The CD of The Thing About Men will no doubt serve to attract regional and stock and amateur productions, and the show might well have success in those areas. But I can't say that the score has much to recommend it, to me at least.

This was one of those pocket musicals about adultery. Philandering husband discovers that his wife is having an affair, etc. You know, one of those musicals with three principals, two people playing everybody else (with funny accents), lyrics like "cancel those desserts, now / I'm through with chasing skirts now," and country-and-western songs about "roadkill on the highway of your heart." The Thing About Men brings to mind entertainments on the order of Shelter and I Love My Wife, both of which — significantly — were produced back in the 1970s. The lyricist sprinkles four letter words here and there, but that doesn't make The Thing About Men contemporary.

Oh, and there's a song with a snippy French maitre d' singing "You Will Never Get Into This Restaurant." "Now, now, don't get snitty, don't get catty / Do I stand here and call you fatty? / Mais non, because we're both so mature / Well I am, I don't know if you're / Sure there's the door / Don't come back for more / There is no encore / She dresses like a whore." The next song starts with "I'm your beer server, Lance." But enough.

Sad to say, because the performances are enjoyable. I'm always glad to come across another performance from Marc Kudisch, who here plays the cuckolded philanderer. Ron Bohmer and Leah Hocking do well as the other parts of the triangle, with Jennifer Simard and Daniel Reichard making the best of their material. So let us direct The Thing About Men to its fans, and to all those groups across the country looking for an easy-to produce, mildly humorous, contemporary-but-not-too-contemporary, five person musical.

And lest you are worrying about the future of marriage in America, let me assure you that The Thing About Men ends with hubby and wife happily reunited.

—Steven Suskin, author of the "Broadway Yearbook" series, "Show Tunes," and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached by E-mail atSsuskin@aol.com.