David Aron Damane is J.J., and Beth Malone is The Unsinkable Molly Brown in a reworking of Meredith Willson’s 1960 musical.
When Dick Scanlan files his taxes, under Occupation, does he put “Richard Morris rewriter”? Morris, a middling mid-century scribe, penned the screenplay for Thoroughly Modern Millie, revised successfully for Broadway by Scanlan in 2002. Now Scanlan has “revitalized,” as the marketing for it goes, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, a 1960 Broadway hit, with a book by Morris, that was Meredith Willson’s follow-up to The Music Man. Scanlan’s Millie, to these eyes at least, was a sloppy rehash of an awkward premise that didn’t know exactly what it wanted to be. (You can judge for yourself when Encores! encores it in May.) But on Willson’s Molly, it turns out, Scanlan has done a bang-up job.
In the lifeboat, Molly lends her fur coat to Irish immigrant Maureen (Kaitlyn Davidson, right). Photographs by Carol Rosegg.
His rewrite is radical. According to a lobby exhibition, he retained three original lines of dialogue, ditching the old story and most of the characters for a new premise that, he says, is closer to Margaret Tobin Brown’s actual life. If so, one wonders why Morris strayed from reality in the first place: this libretto is so much more interesting. (The original plot is faithfully rendered in MGM’s 1964 film version, starring a hyperactive Debbie Reynolds, though two-thirds of the stage score goes missing.)
Scanlan has also dramatically altered the score, rewriting lyrics, scrapping songs, and introducing numbers from Willson’s trunk, often with new words. It’s a massive undertaking. What hasn’t changed, and is as winning as ever, is the title character, a scrappy, shanty-Irish Missouri miss who traveled to Colorado in the 1880s, wed miner J.J. Brown, got rich, invaded Denver society, and survived the sinking of the Titanic. And Beth Malone’s Molly, if less idiosyncratic than Tammy Grimes’s original is said to have been, has the spunk, optimism, and comic timing to make her come alive.
“‘Molly’ remains, as it was from the 1960 get-go, a rousing tribute to America’s can-do spirit, bolstered by strong Willson melodies and neat, straightforward lyrics, amended so deftly by Scanlan that you can’t tell who wrote what. ”
This Molly is discovered not tussling with her brothers but testifying before a Senate committee about the Titanic. (It’s an unnecessary opening flashback, and it never comes up again.) From there she tries unsuccessfully to be the first woman employee at Horace Tabor’s silver mine; meets and is wooed by J.J. (David Aron Damane, sturdy of voice and a soothing counterpoint to Molly’s rambunctiousness); moves to Leadville and bunks with a miner’s widow (Whitney Bashor, with a pretty soprano and a terrible British accent); helps J.J. figure out how to mine gold out of sand, and grows mega-rich; moves to Denver, where she courts, is rejected by, and eventually wins over the city’s leading families; abandons J.J. over an infidelity; conquers European nobility; and boards that unfortunate liner when she hears J.J. is ailing.
There’s much more: Molly also apparently 1) founded charities that Denver’s upper crust never thought of, 2) backed the silver standard, 3) ran for Congress, 4) was an early feminist, 5) supported unionization even as her tycoon husband opposed it, 6) had two kids, and 7) prevented some Titanic immigrants from being sent back (“America is more than sections and codes!” she bellows at an unsympathetic immigration officer, eliciting audience applause). And she brings down the Act I curtain by turning a cartwheel.
Molly remains, as it was from the 1960 get-go, a rousing tribute to America’s can-do spirit, bolstered by strong Willson melodies and neat, straightforward lyrics, amended so deftly by Scanlan that you can’t tell who wrote what. A couple of good songs are missed, notably two stirring J.J. soliloquies, but the new stuff is pretty good, too.
From left: Shina Ann Morris, Paula Leggett Chase, and Davidson can-can.
The company of 16 is vocally excellent, and Omar Lopez-Cepero, as Vincenzo, an immigrant miner who woos that widow, has an extraordinarily lovely tenor. In a uniformly strong cast, CoCo Smith, as Mary, the Browns’ acerbic maid, lands laughs that aren’t even on the page, and Paula Leggett Chase, as the leader of Denver society, ably navigates the musty premise (it goes back at least to 1917’s Oh, Boy!) of losing her inhibitions as she sips spiked afternoon tea.
It’s a big production for downtown, and a lavish one. Joey Chancey’s nine-piece orchestra sounds fuller than some Broadway pits; Sky Switser’s costumes are convincingly 1890–1912, including that red silk dress Molly so craves; Walter Trarbach’s sound design lands some impressive effects, including skyrockets and a surround-sound chorus of anxious relatives of Titanic survivors; and director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall, besides inventing some lively dances and keeping the energy up, up, up, makes us care about these not-that-deep characters. “Revitalized,” this Unsinkable Molly Brown? You bet, and just what the town needs right now: a good, brand-new, old musical comedy.
The Transport Group production of The Unsinkable Molly Brown runs through April 5 at the Abrons Art Center (466 Grand St.). Evening performances are at 7:30 p.m Tuesday through Sunday; matinees are at 2 p.m. (sometimes 3 p.m.) Sunday, with occasional Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Tickets are available by calling (866) 811-4111 or by visiting transportgroup.org.
