Joy Woods and Santino Fontana (Photo: Julieta Cervantes)
I Can Get It For You Wholesale
By Marc Miller
If Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey Evans were to hop the 20th Century Limited from
Chicago to New York and trek a few blocks up from Penn Station to the heart of
the 1930s Garment District, you can bet he'd turn into Harry Bogen. Harry, the
antihero of I Can Get It for You Wholesale, now being given a rare and
quite pungent revival at Classic Stage Company, is very much a Pal Joey
transplanted to the Jewish Bronx. Quick-thinking, resourceful, charming to the
ladies and he knows it, Harry sees life as a game of Get Ahead; whoever gets
bruised or exploited in his climb up the ladder is a sucker and a loser. Remind
you of anyone?
Harry's ruthlessness, much commented on in Wholesale's original run in
1962, is unsettling, and a self-contained critique of capitalism run amok. And
it is, I think, what keeps Wholesale from being a great musical. Very
solidly built, with a book by Jerome Weidman based on his 1937 novel and music
and lyrics by Harold Rome, it lashes out at unchecked greed and holds one's
interest even as it unfolds a narrative we know isn't going to end well. Who is
there for the audience to root for? Certainly not Harry.
Santino Fontana (Photo: Julieta Cervantes)
Fortunately, he's being played by Santino Fontana, in splendid voice, so at
least we can understand why so many around him throw such trust and affection
at him. There's Ruthie (usually Rebecca Naomi Jones, Ephie Aardema at this
performance), adoring of Harry since childhood and willing to lend him her
life's savings if it will help him build a fashion business. There's Martha
(Joy Woods), a svelte Broadway star-as amoral as he is, but willing to be his
mistress in exchange for a few pricey baubles. Business partner Meyer (Adam
Chanler-Berat, splendid) will swallow Harry's lies whole and pay dearly for it,
while other business partner Teddy (Greg Hildreth) will grow wise to Harry's
cons and wriggle away.
Then there's Mrs. Bogen (Judy Kuhn), Harry's mom, an interesting character. She
loves her son, certainly; but she's aware of his moral lapses and the zero
chance he'll ever reform. "Too soon don't give your heart away," she sings
touchingly to Ruthie, confident that there's a better match for her out there than
her own son. And near curtain, trying conflictingly to comfort and not comfort
a fallen Harry, she offers, "Here, eat this. I made it, just as I made you."
She birthed a monster, and she knows it. Kuhn plays Mrs. Bogen as a shrewd
judge of character, or lack of character; no cheap Yiddishe-momma jokes here.
Julia Lester (Photo: Julieta Cervantes)
If anybody walks off with the show, and she does, it's Julia Lester, as Harry's
faithful secretary, Miss Marmelstein. The role won a young lady named Barbra
Streisand a lot of attention in 1962, particularly with her second-act
showstopper "Miss Marmelstein" (here transferred to the first), and may it only
do the same for Lester. A crack comedienne with a trumpet of a voice, she
imparts the same knowingness and flawless timing to Yetta Tessye Marmelstein
that she brought to her sensational Red Riding Hood in the recent Into the
Woods revival. Long may she wave.
This Wholesale has been solidly, cleverly constructed. Crucially, John
Weidman has tinkered with his dad's libretto, introducing one important plot
point, along with several instances of trendy fourth-wall breaking. A prologue
reveals a teenage Harry (Victor De Paula Rocha), doing menial Seventh Avenue
delivery work, being assaulted, robbed, and called an ugly name by a local
antisemitic tough. So maybe that's what instilled this merciless screw-them-all
philosophy in him. Smart move, but it still doesn't justify Harry's subsequent
selfishness and destructiveness. A couple of blocks away during Wholesale's
original run, another amoral schemer, J. Pierrepont Finch, was succeeding in
business without really trying. But he had Robert Morse's dimpled smile and
general adorableness. Fontana's too honest to play Harry that way; as a result,
as Harry rises, the best we can do is anticipate a lot of damage is going to be
done, and there's no fun in that.
Harold Rome was a brilliant, underappreciated composer-lyricist. He could write
French (Fanny, his masterpiece), Old West (Destry Rides Again),
or labor-lefty (Pins and Needles), but was especially comfortable with
the Jewish working classes (Wish You Were Here, this). It's a
way-above-average score, rich in minor-key semiticism and capped by a
disturbing, Brechtian evilness-of-capitalism lament, "What Are They Doing to Us
Now?," masterfully led by a powerhouse Lester. In 5/4, yet.
(Photo: Julieta Cervantes) (Photo: Julieta Cervantes)
Not everything about CSC's production is top-drawer. I wasn't that taken with
Mark Wendland's set, which consists mainly of tables and chairs, being
furiously arranged and rearranged by cast members, and limiting Ellenore
Scott's choreography mostly to people leaping over them. Adam Honoré's lighting
is on the dark side, and while I applauded the period authenticity of Ann
Hould-Ward's costumes, I felt cheated by the Act One climax, a fashion parade
that consists of only one fashion. David Chase's adaptation and arrangement of
Rome's score is excellent, including the addition of a couple of salient Rome
trunk tunes, and Jacinth Greywoode's music direction and arrangements, if not
up to Sid Ramin's originals, afford about as full-orchestra sound as you'll ever
hear off-Broadway. Trip Cullman directs fluidly, with an emphasis on the
changing moods and loyalties in Harry Bogen's orbit.
I Can Get It for You Wholesale is a scalding, scolding
indictment of the damage that gets done when power is invested in the greedy
and unscrupulous, and well worth a couple of hours of your time. Just expect to
walk out under a cloud.
I Can Get It for You Wholesale
At Classic Stage Company
Lynn F. Angelson Theater, 136 E. 13th St.
Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Tickets: classicstage.org
Through
December 17
