PLAYBILL.COM'S THEATRE WEEK IN REVIEW, Oct. 10-16: Broadway Gone "Mad"?

By Robert Simonson
October 16, 2009

No section of society is immune to the mania surrounding the AMC series "Mad Men," it seems. And that includes Broadway.

Five years ago, shows like How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Promises, Promises would have been considered too dated to revive, their views on life in the workplace and, in particular, the relationship between the sexes, antiquated and borderline offensive.

Not anymore. Both take place in 1960s New York—the era of "Mad Men," which, over its three seasons, has been set at and around the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue from 1960 to 1963. The drinking, the womanizing, the smoking, the suits, the hats, the general bad behavior—they're all catnip to viewers right now, newly cool. Everyone now wants to drink cocktails with lunch and dress in Brooks Brothers.

This week, news came that Tony Award winner Kristin Chenoweth is in negotiations to portray Fran Kubelik in an upcoming Broadway revival of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David-Neil Simon musical Promises, Promises. The show was based on the Billy Wilder film "The Apartment," about C.C. Baxter, a cog in a large corporation who moves up the ladder by letting out his flat for executive trysts. Very "Mad Men." The New York Post reported that Rob Ashford will direct and choreograph the revival, which will co-star Sean Hayes ("Will & Grace") as Chuck Baxter. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron will produce.

Meanwhile, Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, who recently contracted the stage bug (Equus), may return to New York in a revival of Frank Loesser's 1961 musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Variety reported that the star will take part in a December reading of the musical. Again, Rob Ashford is attached to direct and choreograph. And, again, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are producing with the aim of a possible Broadway revival. (Are these guys hedging their bets, determined to produce whichever 1960s musical crosses the Broadway finish line first?)

Matthew Weiner, the creator of "Mad Men," has said that How to Succeed... was one of the main inspirations of his series. So much so, that he cast the musical and subsequent film's original star, Robert Morse, in the television show as Sterling Cooper senior partner Bert Cooper. The show actually ran on Broadway during the same years "Mad Men" takes place, though there has been no mention of the show in any episode. "A Secretary Is Not a Toy," "I Believe in You," "It's Been a Long Day"—these are songs Don Draper would smile at knowingly.

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There were two Broadway openings this week, both revivals.

The Broadway premiere of David Mamet's divisive drama Oleanna, starring Bill Pullman as a professor and Julia Stiles as his troublesome student, officially opened at the John Golden Theatre Oct. 11.

Critics were divided on the production. Some thought the two-hander still packed a punch and provoked visceral reactions in the viewer as to which character was in the right, which abused power and which had the upper hand. Others felt it lacked the tension and fizz of the original, and had dated since the early 90s, when its subjects of political correctness and sexual harassment (the infamous Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas sexual harassment hearings had just gotten underway) were at the forefront of the national dialogue.

"Bye Bye Birdie." That may have been the dark play on words the producers of the new revival of the musical Bye Bye Birdie would have been hearing today, after the Oct. 15 opening, had the mounting of the Charles Strouse-Lee Adams show not been at a nonprofit venture and thus guaranteed a fairly long run. The reviews were bad, to put it mildly. Newsday gave us the inevitable headline: "No reason to put on a happy face." Almost everyone pointed out that usually appealing John Stamos and Gina Gershon, who play the lead roles, and shoulder a great deal of the song burden, could not sing or dance with any confidence. And, as dependable performers like Bill Irwin also flailed about, reviewers could not help but lay the main blame at the feet of the director Robert Longbottom. All lamented that the first Broadway revival of the much-loved show in 50 years should flounder so badly.

In this case, the show's connection to "Mad Men"—the original movie provided a key plot element in one of this season's storylines—is not likely to help at all.

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Broadway's new nanny in Mary Poppins is actually the old one. The show's original London star, Olivier Award winner Laura Michelle Kelly, flew into the New Amsterdam Theatre Oct. 12.

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Finally, two shows that were praised last week were extended this week: the revival of The Royal Family at the Biltmore and Anna Deveare Smith's Let Me Down Easy at Second Stage.