When ‘The Streets of New York’ gives its final Connecticut performance on Saturday night, it will do more than close out the venerable Westport Playhouse?s current menu. It will, in a sense, close the theater itself, at least for some 18 months, the estimated time required to complete the elaborate makeover the playhouse is about to undergo.
Groundbreaking for the massive renovation will take place in November, with a gala reopening planned for June 2005, which will celebrate the start of the theater?s 75th anniversary.
The Irish Rep?s free-wheeling adaptation of Boucicault?s vastly popular old warhorse is a particularly apt choice to be the closer of this particular phase of the beloved Connecticut playshop?s long and illustrious life, since, when the theater opened, on June 30, 1931, its first production was ?The Streets of New York,? without the songs provided for the current staging by the director, Charlotte Moore, and with Dorothy Gish and Rollo Peters in the roles being filled now by Rebecca Bellingham and Greg Stone.
Somewhere along he way, ?The Poor of New York? acquired the name by which it is known now, and, with its new title, enjoyed a healthy string of productions as ?The Streets of London,? ?The Streets of Liverpool,? ?The Streets of Chicago,? and so forth, with every new staging reflecting the locale to which it had been adapted.
The staggeringly prolific Boucicault had a keen sense of what was going on around him, whether in England, where he wrote ?London Assurance? in 1841, or in New York, where he and his wife, the actress Agnes Robertson, moved in 1853.
Even though he?d lived in Manhattan for only four years when he wrote the play that became ?The Streets of New York,? Boucicault based his work on an actual financial panic which had the city in its grip in 1857.
Rewarding as the Irish Rep?s musicalization was a couple of seasons ago on the stage of its home on West 22nd Street, an argument could be made that, in the overall sense, the show is even more effective in Connecticut than it was in New York.
For one thing, the broad proscenium stage of the Westport Country Playhouse seems to allow the production to spread its wings just a bit and to breathe a little easier than was the case with the original staging.
The playhouse?s revolving stage allows the show to move faster and more gracefully, and so does the theater?s new snow machine, which fills the stage with light, airy flakes which quickly evanesce, eliminating the necessity of sweeping up before the show can continue.
A deeper, subtler grace is reflected in director Moore?s often demonstrated knack for ferreting out gifted young actors and actresses who are also strong singers.
This aspect of Moore?s gift was conspicuous in the New York production, and it shows up in blessed abundance in the new staging, with exactly half of the 12-member cast new to the show.
David Staller, a powerful baritone perhaps best known for his work in cabarets and concert halls, turns in a richly over-the-top performance as the villainous swindler, Gideon Bloodgood, a perfect foil for the crafty vessel, Brendan Badger, done as before by Ciaran O?Reilly, the Irish Rep?s producing director.
The comedic musical hall number they share, ?Villains,? is a genuine crowd-pleaser, bringing energetic response from the Westport audience.
As the tale?s suffering lovers, Lucy Fairweather and Mark Livingstone, the aforementioned Bellingham and Stone bring admirable skill and musicianship to their assigned tasks.
The pixie-like Nancy Anderson, memorable in last season?s Broadway musical ?A Class Act,? brings sharpened claws and an unusually flexible vocal technique to the part of Alida Bloodworth, Gideon?s selfish and manipulative daughter.
In a double role, playing first the ill-fated sailor, Captain Patrick Fairweather, and, a bit later, the serpentine Duke of Calcavella, opposite Anderson?s Alida, John Bolton, recently seen in Susan Stroman?s Lincoln Center smash ?Contact,? racks up considerable impact, despite relatively little actual time onstage.
Anderson and Bolton, coupling in Moore?s ?Bad Boy Tango,? score one of the production?s highlights, just as Stone and Bellingham unite to strong effect in ?Poor Wounded Heart,? arguably the director?s most successful foray into songwriting.
Donald Corren, new to the role of Dermot Puffy, the impoverished ?baker that was,? lends positive energy to the part, and teams well with Terry Donnelly and Danielle Farland, both repeating their Rep characters, Puffy?s eternally loyal wife, Pauline, and the couple?s gun-toting, pigeon-shooting daughter, Dixie.
Also staying on from the earlier production are Margaret Hall as the sea captain?s widow, Susan Fairweather, and Joshua Park as her stalwart son, Paul, not to mention Rep regular John Keating as a swiftly-sketched succession of servants and citizens, plus, with hastily attached moustache, an Irish cop or two.
Special mention should be made of actress Bellingham, saddled in the middle of Act Two with what is quite possibly the single most unspeakable line heard on any stage in the tri-state area just at the moment: She asks, having stumbled upon her ?mother?s? preparations for a suicide attempt, ?Why have you fastened these apertures so closely with your apron??
Hugh Landwehr?s inventive scenery, featuring a New York City skyline composed of beige-toned, antiqued, period newspapers, combines with a series of set pieces perched atop that much-used turntable to make ?The Streets of New York? seem both appealing and swiftly paced, while Linda Fisher?s costumes, as numerous as they are authentic-seeming, contribute to the show?s strong sense of time and place.
Boucicault?s plot is set in the old Manhattan area called Five Points, encompassing the same dangerous streets that were a part of Martin Scorsese?s recent film ?Gangs of New York.? One of the movie?s characters, in fact, the thug turned ?virtuous? cop played by John C. Reilly, is almost a carbon copy of O?Reilly?s conniving Badger, who undergoes a complete moral transformation in the final scenes of ?The Streets of New York.?
The Irish Repertory Theatre?s visit to Connecticut marks the conclusion of actress Joanne Woodward?s fourth season as artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse. She couldn?t have made a better choice of show with which to end this phase of the old summer theater?s illustrious history.