Strike Up the Band (MasterVoices)

By Harry Forbes

Director/conductor Ted Sperling has again done George and Ira Gershwin proud with his one night performance of the first of the team’s three political satires. (The MasterVoices Orchestra and Chorus has already triumphed with the later works, “Of Thee I Sing” and its follow-up “Let ‘Em Eat Cake.”)

Back in 1927, “Strike Up the Band” had a troubled genesis. Its out-of-town tryout in Philadelphia was rapturously received by critics, but the public proved indifferent, and the show (with its book by George S. Kaufman) didn’t come to Broadway until 1930 in significantly different form with a revised book by Morrie Ryskind. The result was more musical than operetta, and spotlighted the comic talents of top-billed Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough. So, too, the Gershwin brothers rewrote half the score. Here’s footage of George Gershwin at rehearsals for the revised version.

For this revival, Sperling and co-book writer, theater historian Laurence Maslon, retained the 1927 structure while including some of the best of the 1930 material. Thus, we were able to hear such delights as “Hangin’ Around With You,” “Mademoiselle from New Rochelle,” and “I’ve Got a Crush On You,” among others, from the latter. There was some character reassignment. But their new book was, all in all, a skillful blend of both, and never felt bloated. The musical parts derived from the Tommy Krasker restorations done for the Nonesuch recordings in 1991.

The plot concerns Horace J. Fletcher (John Ellison Conlee), a dimwitted cheese manufacturer who, with the help of Washington VIP Colonel Holmes (David Pittu), instigates a war with Switzerland when the latter objects to a tariff about to be imposed on imported Swiss cheese. Fletcher wants the tariff as it will drive up the price of his competition, and help him corner the domestic market. 

His daughter Joan (Shereen Ahmed) falls for investigative reporter Jim Townsend (Bryce Pinkham) though her father expects her to marry his right hand man C. Edgar Sloane (Claybourne Elder). Meanwhile, the factory foreman Timothy (Phillip Attmore) is romancing Horace’s executive assistant Miss Meade (Lissa deGuzman). 

Wealthy dowager Mrs. Draper (amusing Victoria Clark, miles removed from her recent “Kimberly Akimbo” role) hopes to enlist Fletcher in her program to send deprived country kids to the big city (an amusing twist on the usual such philanthropic venture). Throughout it all, a character named George Spelvin (very funny Christopher Fitzgerald, channeling Lou Costello) weaves in and out of the story morphing into various wacky roles. 

It took a while for the silliness of the premise and the hokeyness of the dialogue to catch fire, but about halfway through the first half, everything clicked, thanks largely to the charm and skill of the marvelous cast, many MasterVoices veterans. And certainly, many of the show's themes -- politics, war, even tariffs -- resonate today. Encores resurrected the show back in 1998 with a stellar cast but I can’t recall enough of it to make a detailed comparison.

Apart from the classic title song (rousingly performed here), this is the show from which those classic songs “The Man I Love” and “I’ve Got a Crush on You” emanate. And it was fascinating to be reminded of their original context. The former -- gorgeously sung, first by Ahmed, and then in duet with Pinkham -- was sublime. And the latter, so often done as a ballad today, was a jaunty number for deGuzman and Attmore, leading into a spirited dance. 

The performance, in fact, included more dancing than ever before, niftily devised by Alison Solomon, and also -- for the first time with MasterVoices -- tap dancing. Of the principals, deGuzman and Attmore had the lion’s share of hoofing which they executed as skillfully as their singing.

Pinkham was in particularly lustrous voice, and earned an especially big hand for his final number “Homeward Bound,” originally performed by a soldier character. Clark had plenty of opportunity to show off her high soprano range. And Conlee, Elder, Pittu, and Fitzgerald -- all dramatically and comically solid -- shone in their vocal moments.

The Gershwins were Gilbert and Sullivan fans, and Ira is said to have admired especially Gilbert’s witty lyrics. Though the music is quintessential Gershwin, all the many choral interjections and extended musical sequences are structurally reminiscent of G&S and operetta in general. And, in that regard, the MasterVoices chorus sounded splendid from their opening “Fletcher’s American Cheese Choral Society” number and all the rest. The musical comedy numbers are there, sure, but the operetta elements are unmistakable, especially the Act One Finaletto wherein Townsend reveals his big discovery that Fletcher’s premium cheese is, in fact, tainted with Grade B milk. 

Three fascinating podcasts hosted by John McWhorter of "The New York Times" -- with Sperling and Maslon, “New Yorker” cartoonist and editor Bob Mankoff, and John Mauceri, conductor of the Nonesuch recordings, respectively -- break down the many facets of the show. 

(Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue; October 29th only; www.mastervoices.org)

Photos by Toby Tenenbaum:

(Top) Dancers

(Below) (l.-r.) Lissa deGuzman, Shereen Ahmed, Bryce Pinkham, Victoria Clark, John Ellison Conlee

(Bottom) Christopher Fitzgerald & company