Divamensch

City Center has a series called Encores!, they do productions of Broadway musicals that hadn’t been revived, or hadn’t been revived in a while.  They used to be semi-staged, but they’ve been getting more elaborate over the last few years.

 

Their latest production was *Little Me*, a 1961 musical that was a magical union of talents: the book was by Neil Simon (no introduction needed for him), the music was by Cy Coleman (who later wrote *Sweet Charity*), based on the book by Patrick Dennis (who wrote *Auntie Mame*), starring Sid Caesar (no introduction needed for him).  The show was built around Caesar, who played six roles, was basically doing a *Your Show of Shows* show.  The musical was revived in 1998 for Martin Short, who won a Tony.  The Encores! production starred Christian Borle as the male lead, Rachel York as the young version of the female lead, and Judy Kaye as her older self.  York has a strong voice and a killer personality, but I felt like she was a little too strident and insistent.  She’d be well served by relaxing a little.  Borle was clearly having a great time in his six roles, and his good humor was infectious.  He was a delight.  And Judy Kaye is such a gem, there’s something so warm and generous about her.

 

One of the real treats of an Encores! show is hearing the score with its original full orchestration.  Broadway shows are often pared down in the pit, to make them cheaper, and Encores! always does the score as it was originally done.  This was one hot band, and they played the heck out of this snappy score.