Susan Granger’s review of “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever” (St. James Theater 2011-2012)
It’s a pleasure revisiting Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane’s 1965 musical, which originally starred Barbara Harris and John Cullum, even though director Michael Mayer’s new, gender-bending concept is a bit bewildering.
Enchanting Daisy Gamble, the kooky girl with ESP, has become gay Brooklyn florist David Gamble, while the minor role of the psychiatrist has been amplified by playwright Peter Parnell (“QED”) into the story’s protagonist. So when simpering, easily-hypnotized David (David Turner) visits Dr. Mark Bruckner (Harry Connick Jr.), ostensibly to stop smoking, the grieving widower/psychiatrist is stunned to discover that he’s falling in love with Melinda (Jessie Mueller), a 1940s nightclub singer reincarnated from David’s previous life. The chronologically-convoluted twist is that David was born the day that Melinda died, and she still inhabits a niche in his psyche – which leaves Dr. Bruckner and the audience quite confused.
With acclaim for “American Idiot” and “Spring Awakening” under his belt, Meyer’s therapy-for-three revisions were supported by the Lerner and Lane estates and amplified by songs from the 1970 Vincente Minnelli film version, starring Barbra Streisand and Yves Montand, as well as “Royal Wedding,” the 1951 Fred Astaire/Jane Powell musical. According to his producer/daughter Liza Lerner, lyricist Alan Jay Lerner was fascinated by psychic phenomena and reincarnation, and Harry Connick notes, “It’s a contradictory, back-to-the-future, illusion-reality deal that you have to chalk up to poetry.”
Having scored resounding success in the Roundabout Theatre’s 2006 revival of “The Pajama Game,” Harry Connick Jr. proves once again that he’s a big-time Broadway star – and his performance is superb. Unfortunately, while David Turner and Jessie Mueller do their best, their dual character is never properly delineated – and neither ignites sparks with Mr. Connick. On the other hand, Turner’s “What Did I Have That I Don’t Have?” is all the more plaintive in this version.
The creative team includes Christine Jones (sets), Catherine Zuber (costumes), Kevin Adams (lighting), Peter Hylenski (sound), Tom Watson (hair), Lawrence Yurman (music director) and Doug Hesterman (orchestrations).
So while the plot is problematic, watching and listening to soulful, ballad-heavy songs smoothly delivered by Harry Connick Jr. is always a pleasure.