Susan Granger’s review of “Chaplin: The Musical” (Ethel Barrymore Theater: 2012-2013 season)
Since Charlie Chaplin scored his greatest success in silent pictures, it’s not surprising that the sight triumphs over sound in this new Broadway musical.
The curtain opens with Chaplin (Rob McClure), dressed as his iconic Little Tramp, adroitly balancing on a tightrope, as those below question: “What you gonna do when it all falls down?”
Flashback to 1894 in the East End of London, where young Charlie (Zachary Unger) is singing in the streets – to the delight of his loving mother, Hannah (Christiane Noll) a vaudeville star who was becoming more and more emotionally and mentally unstable, even as she taught him to astutely observe those around him. After catching the eye of pioneer movie-maker Mack Sennett (Michael McCormick), now-grown Charlie moves from the Music Hall to Hollywood, where he creates the Little Tramp character in ‘flickers’ like “The Kid,” “The Gold Rush,” “Payday,” “Modern Times,” “Limelight,” “The Circus” and “The Great Dictator,” achieving fame and fortune. When his brother Sydney (Wayne Alan Wilcox) joins him, they place demented Hannah in a Glendale nursing home. A succession of young, gold-digging wives follows, but then Charlie’s liberalism incurs the wrath of vituperative gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Jenn Colella), who contrives to have him deported. In 1972, Charlie returns – with his fourth wife, Oona O’Neill (Erin Mackey), the estranged daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill – to accept an Honorary Oscar.
Built around songs by Christopher Curtis and a chronologically biographical book by Curtis and Thomas Meehan (“Annie,” “The Producers,” “Hairspray”) – borrowing liberally from the 1993 film “Chaplin,” starring Robert Downey Jr. – it’s directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle. Characterized by a shades-of-gray color palette, the sets by Beowulf Boritt and costumes by Amy Clark and the late Martin Pakledinaz reflect that muted tone, heightening the pathos.
While Jenn Colella does some laudable scene-stealing, most memorable is Rob McClure’s sweetly uncanny Chaplin impersonation, which he first created at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego two years ago – and the stylish, monochromatic projections effectively recreate early Hollywood.