Harry Bogen (Santino Fontana, left) and his partner Teddy Ash (Greg Hildreth) celebrate a business deal by hoisting Mamma Bogen (Judy Kuhn) into the air in I Can Get It for You Wholesale.
For decades the Harold Rome–Jerome Weidman musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale has been known primarily for putting Barbra Streisand on the map. In 1962 many critics found protagonist Harry Bogen, a young Jewish hustler in New York City’s garment trade in 1937, too unlikable, even though Pal Joey and its caddish hero had succeeded in various Broadway productions. But timing also played a part. John Chapman in the Daily News noted that “his success, unlike Robert Morse’s genial villainies in How to Succeed [at a nearby theater], leaves a bad taste.” In the New York Times, Howard Taubman complained that the book was not “uplifting.” Now that antiheroes are commonplace, however, Wholesale deserves another look, and the Classic Stage Company’s loving revival (with a book updated by Jerome’s son John Weidman) provides evidence that it’s an overlooked gem.
Rebecca Naomi Jones is Ruthie Rivkin, who hopes for romance with the hustling Harry Bogen, in Harold Rome and Jerome Weidman’s 1962 musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale.
It helps that Trip Cullman’s incisive production has Broadway-caliber talent to present the story of a Jewish kid clawing his way up in the garment industry by hook and, more often, by crook. Santino Fontana exudes charisma as Harry, and Rebecca Naomi Jones is warm and flirtatious as Ruthie Rivkin, the girl whose heart he toys with and whose pocketbook he sticks a hand in. But Harry also chases a gold-digging actress (Joy Woods), who has her own physical assets. Most important, Judy Kuhn is a devoted but clear-eyed Jewish mother. “Harry’s very good at knowing who can help him,” she says to Ruthie, and warns her in song: “Too soon don’t give your heart away.”
Wholesale begins with a prologue, as young Harry (Victor de Paula Rocha), delivering swatches and bolts of cloth in the garment district, is robbed by an antisemitic thug. It’s a smart way to invest sympathy in Harry, and Fontana, in direct address to the audience, radiates a low-key charm that prolongs one’s interest in his character right to a revised, unsentimental end.
Stressed-out dressmaker Maurice Pulvermacher (Adam Grupper) leans on his chief designer, Meyer Bushkin (Adam Chanler-Berat) when the pressures of his job become too much.
The musical is steeped in Jewish atmosphere, from a bar mitzvah scene to the inverted lyrics by Weidman, such as “My neck it couldn’t choke” and “Wealth we wouldn’t wish you.” It’s also in the Yiddish-inflected introductions when Harry brings home his new partners, Teddy Ash and Meyer Bushkin, along with Meyer’s wife, Blanche, to meet Momma, who sings, “Teddichkeh meet Meyerla/Meyerla meet Teddichkeh.…” And although Kuhn’s Jewish mother sings “Eat a Little Something” to her son, the actress avoids the classic stereotype: she’s sincere but not overbearing, even when she noodges. Composer Rome draws on minor keys and klezmer rhythms for a score that’s rich with melodies, not least of which is “A Funny Thing Happened,” Ruthie’s bouncy and satisfying farewell to Harry (with sentiments that parallel “Take Him” from Pal Joey).
At a time when so many musicals focus on showbiz types, Weidman’s business setting is refreshing. The challenges of making a buck in the fashion industry are reflected in Maurice Pulvermacher (Adam Grupper), who keeps at it for the money. Less well-off is Adam Chanler-Berat’s Meyer, a designer poached from Pulvermacher to become Harry’s partner. Although they’re subsidiary characters, Meyer and Blanche (Jennifer Babiak, an understudy filling in thrillingly at the performance I saw) are the real romantic anchor of the show. They sing a lovely duet called “Have I Told You Lately?”
Julia Lester plays the overworked Miss Marmelstein—the role that was Barbra Streisand’s breakthrough.
The large cast includes Julia Lester as the efficient secretary Miss Marmelstein, a true believer in Harry—and the character that drew raves for the 19-year-old Streisand. Lester is both amiable and longsuffering, and delivers “Miss Marmelstein” with her own inflections and force. Greg Hildreth brings a no-nonsense air to the business-savvy Teddy, the partner who uncovers Harry’s grift, and he has a nifty duet with the gold-digger Martha Mills, as they hook up following Harry’s bankruptcy and sing the transactional “What’s in It for Me?”
Ann Hould-Ward’s elegant, soft-looking fabrics for the women’s dresses and striking hats and J. Jared Jones’s marcelled wigs help evoke the era. Adam Honoré’s lighting toggles between familial warmth in the home scenes and dark spaces in others. In a court scene, with main characters doubling as legal personnel, Honoré judiciously keeps them in near-darkness. And Ellenore Scott’s small-space choreography glitters with invention.
There are minor disappointments. A fashion show hosted by Teddy has descriptions of parading models that CSC’s budget didn’t allow. A couple songs have been cut. And no decent woman circa 1937—or for several decades after—would ever say “Shit!” publicly. Quibbles aside, I Can Get It for You Wholesale is a show whose time, one hopes, has finally arrived.
The revival of I Can Get It for You Wholesale runs at the Classic Stage Company (136 E. 13th St.) through Dec. 17. Evening performances are 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; matinees are at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. For tickets and more information, call or visit classicstage.org.
Book & Lyrics: Jerome Weidman; book revisions by John Weidman
Music: Harold Rome
Direction: Trip Cullman
Choreography: Ellenore Scott
Sets: Mark Wendland
Lighting: Adam Honoré
Costumes: Ann Hould-Ward
