Bells Are Ringing

"Is it a crime to start each day with a laugh and a smile and a song?"  That was Ella Peterson’s refrain when Bells Are Ringing first appeared on Broadway in 1956, and it’s still the fuel that drives the scaled-down Encores! revival at City Center.  As she puts it:

"We're taught two things as we go through life,
Be thy brother's keeper and
Mind your own business."

Ella went for the brother’s keeper.

Betty Comden, Adolph Green and composer Jule Styne’s upbeat Broadway musical was originally an unpretentious bubbly fable.  Today, with musical theater’s sweetheart, Kelli O’Hara as Ella, the party’s not over, despite the song.  The story is simple, taking place in the days before texting and smart phones.  Ella works as an operator in a small answering service, Susanswerphone, and maybe it’s a crime, but she can’t stop listening in on her clients and trying to solve their problems.  She can’t help herself from falling in romance with the voice of a charming, but procrastinating playboy/screenwriter named Jeffrey Moss (Will Chase) and then falling in true love with him when they meet face to face.  Of course, there are misunderstandings.  At first, Jeffrey knows her only as “Mom,” the encouraging operator who urges him to put some speed on his new play.  When they finally meet, she calls herself “Melisande Scott,” later causing more confusion.   She also confronts some misguided detectives who seem to think Susanswerphone is a front for suspicious activities.  Meanwhile, Sue Summers (Judy Kaye), Ella’s boss and owner of the service, er er is smitten by an eccentric smarmy bookie with an unidentifiable guttural accent, J. Sandor Prantz (David Pittu), who is using their office for his nefarious means.

Other clients needing Ella’s help are Blake Barton (Bobby Cannavale), an aspiring actor who fancies himself the new Marlon Brando, and Dr. Kitchell (Brad Oscar), a dentist who has a good day job, but really loves composing songs on his air hose.  Ella involves herself with everything, feigning a toothache and assuming a comic Brando accent to help out Barton.

Not every song is a winner, but there are some great standards in the show, richly presented with the soaring fullness of Rob Berman’s orchestra.  Kelli O’Hara’s glorious voice and resonant intimacy enhance winners like "The Party's Over," the soft-shoe catchiness of "Just in Time,” and an eleven o'clock rouser, "I'm Goin' Back" ("to the Bonjour Tristesse Brassière Company/a little modeling on the side").   "Long Before I Knew You" is as beautiful as you have ever heard it and, with their convincing chemistry, her duet with Will Chase, “Better Than a Dream,” could not be better.  Judy Kaye and David Pittu are hilarious with “Salzburg.”

The show was written for Judy Holliday who earned the Best Actress in a Musical Tony Award over Julie Andrews (My Fair Lady) and while O’Hara could not be more engaging, it’s easy to hear Holliday’s singular voice saying the lines.  Director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall drew upon the characteristics of all the characters and keeps the crisp pace, letting the viewers enjoy the sentimentality of a past era, still glossy even after decades of vast societal changes.  Her choreography is energizing, with highlights like the subway square dance, "Hello, Hello There," cleverly performed on the narrow space between orchestra and the edge of the stage. Martin Pakledinaz designed a colorful 1950s palette of costumes.

Bells Are Ringing opens the current new season of New York City Center's Encores!  Next up are Lost in the Stars, a psychological musical by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson, followed by Where’s Charley? with a score by Frank Loesser.

(Pictured: WIll Chase and Kelli O'Hara. Photo by Joan Marcus)

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
November 20, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org