Opinion: Comden, Green 'Make Someone Happy'

Bay Street Theatre kicks off its sixth season with another blissed-out program cover by the brilliant Paul Davis, and with the world premiere of "Make Someone Happy," a celebration of the long, fabulous lives and careers of the lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

The multi-Tony-award-winning duo, both of whom have houses in the Hamptons, were in the audience Friday night (the show opened Saturday), Mr. Green beaming and tapping his feet in the front row, Ms. Comden perched high in the back. Separated physically as they are in life, but spiritually united in the temple of their work, they received a huge ovation.

"Make Someone Happy" sparkles with local talent. The sometimes bawdy, always funny, Phyllis Newman, Mr. Green's wife, thought up the idea for the evening, wrote the book, and directed.

Newman's Credits

Honored for such Broadway shows as "Subways Are for Sleeping," which earned her a Tony, and for Neil Simon's "Broadway Bound," which won a Tony nomination, she has other credits including such hits as "Bells Are Ringing," "Wonderful Town," and her one-woman show, "The Madwoman of Central Park West," co-written and directed by Arthur Laurents.

She shares the writing honors here with the hilarious David Ives, who's "from away." Not one to recoil from a ribald quip himself, he's noted for the fresh, hip "All in the Timing," an evening of one-act comedies that won the Outer Critics Circle award in 1994.

As for music, well, how about tunes by Leonard Bernstein, Southampton's Cy Coleman, Roger Edens, Larry Grossman, and Jule Styne - some of the greatest musical comedy composers of our time?

Songs like "New York, New York," "Just in Time," "Learn to Be Lonely," "Singin' in the Rain," and "The Party's Over" light up the evening.

Toss in a magical set by Sag Harbor's Tony Walton, right-on costumes by Sharon Sprague, Kirk Bookman's glamorous lighting, Randy Freed's sound design, Andrew Lippa's musical direction, and Jeanine Tesori's flowing vocal arrangements, and you have a level of talent that could shoot the moon.

Singing and dancing their way through Comden and Green's five decades of collaboration are a cast of six - three Bettys and three Adolphs - who personify the writing team at three stages in their lives: "young, medium, and well-done," as Betty III (Dee Hoty) puts it.

Three Bettys, Three Adolphs

As Betty I, the ingenue, the lovely Melissa Errico, who last starred on Broadway as Eliza Doolittle opposite Richard Chamberlain in "My Fair Lady," displays a pristine singing voice and personifies the scrappy temperament that kept her character glued to the typewriter for lo those many years.

Paula Newsome, as the riper Betty II, is more of a belter with a fuller voice and the commanding presence of woman who knows how to do what she's doing: It's a vibrant performance.

The gifted Ms. Hoty, recently honored by two Tony nominations for best actress in a musical, portrays Betty III at a more philosophical stage: wiser, tarter, at peace with her "lifetime in little rooms" and with the peculiar intimacy of being "verbal partners, joined at the brain."

The three Adolphs, Max Perlman, Jim Bracchitta, and Adam Grupper, are not as charismatic as their counterparts, but they put a good deal of energy and humor into their demanding song-and-dance roles.

Something Missing

In remarks to The Star last week, Mr. Green said that while there's no linear plot to "Make Someone Happy," "it does have a thread of a story and, of course, tons and tons of numbers."

Insisting that "it's not based on reality in any way," Ms. Comden described the show as "more of an attempt to capture our characters - nothing exact, nothing factual."

Perhaps unwittingly, "the longest-running creative theater partnership in history" put its finger on just what seems to be missing from this lavishly talented production: a story. But of course!

The "thread of a story" Mr. Green mentioned boils down to this: Two young lyricists meet, and agree to collaborate. He paces. She types. They free-associate. They put sex off limits so they can be creative together. They marry other people.

The Sound Of Applause

The point of it all? They crave "the sound of applause." And, twice spurning Hollywood's big bucks, they get it in spades: six Tony awards, honors from the Kennedy Center, and work that's loved and performed around the world.

There are about 35 songs in "Make Someone Happy" - a long evening. Each is presented out of the context of the show for which it was originally written, and bereft of the passion of the character who was moved to sing it.

This more-or-less disembodied delivery unfortunately diminishes the songs' emotional impact, particularly when so many numbers come in such rapid-fire succession, sung by six different vocalists. Perhaps the show would have worked better as a simple concert.

As it is, we're entertained but rather drained: The evening has an empty feeling. If there's a story to be told, Ms. Comden and Mr. Green have chosen to withhold it, no doubt with good reason. But tiptoeing around the outskirts of their long, productive collaboration is not a fulfilling experience.