Jennie review

Jennie Review - Broadway musical

V. J. Donehue, who worked as the director of this show on Broadway, was not able to organize the work so that the audience liked the musical, despite the very good performance in pre-sales – over USD 1.3 million for a few weeks before the opening. M. Mattox, who choreographed, perhaps performed his work at 80% or so, because none of the critics praised his efforts. In the same way, everyone was silent about the work of costume designer I. Sharaff and talents of stage actors: J. Morris, E. Shutta, G. D. Wallace, I. Fakir, R. Bailey, S. Harris & J. D. Lon.

A. Schulman, author of the libretto, which at the time of writing this, is already 90 years old, did not managed to be remembered by the audience with anything more seriously remarkable, but one quite successful “A Chorus Line” in 1985. A. Schwartz, composer, died in 1984 at the age of 83, left marks that are more significant in the life: he has worked with such well-known personalities like Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, and on his account, there are 2 nominations on the Oscar (as he worked not only in theater but also for filming industry). H. Dietz, who died a year earlier than A. Schwartz, at the age of 86 (he was born in 1896), was the author of the libretto. During his life, he spent 15 years in the Vice-President’s chair of the Metro Goldwin Meyer company, having started his career in the 1920s. On Broadway, he had 16 jobs, whose names now will not say anything to theatergoers of nowadays. He was born and died in New York City. Mary Martin left this world in 1990 at the age of 76, leaving behind two children, a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, having featured in more than 50 works on Broadway, movies and on the radio; amongst the most famous works of who was voicing of Peter Pan.

The only thing that was slightly warm marked by critics – the work of the composer, and even then, it was the cause of litigation, when one of the young critics, obviously wanting to make a name for himself, not thoughtfully blamed the composer in "plagiarism". How was the case in reality is unclear, but the case was won and production continued. It is likely that this issue raised public interest in the show, allowing serious pre-sale of tickets for the show, which was not managed to show regular exhibitions even over 1 hundred ones.

Among the whole musical, work by Mary Martin was commendable, and if you take away from it all the other components of this musical, and add to them parts made totally in a different style and with great professionalism – the acting and the cast itself, costumes, lights, libretto, scenic decoration – then it would make a strong piece. But it turned out that Mary Martin has been pursued after this by several other failures, her following two musicals were closed during the pre-out-of-town exhibitions, allowing to speak with confidence, decades later, that her name was spoiled with several bad works. As to the nature of the comments of critics, they were sullen and woeful, but sometimes restrained-positive. No one particularly understood, if there was any charm, and if so, of what exactly it consisted?
Last Update:April, 19th 2016