Director John Doyle’s patented gimmick of having the actors play their own musical instruments adds little to this problematic show

When the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Allegro originally opened on Broadway in 1947 it was a certified event. Advance ticket sales for the latest work by the creators of the smash hits Oklahoma! and Carousel were in the area of $750,000, and that was at a time when the top Broadway ticket price was six dollars. Directed and choreographed by Agnes de Mille, the production featured a cast of dozens, plus more than twice as many dancers. But this audaciously experimental show received mixed reviews and closed after a mere nine months. It has rarely been seen since. The new off-Broadway Classic Stage Company production directed by John Doyle is unlikely to change the fortunes of Allegro. Performed, as was the original, on a mostly bare stage, it features but a dozen actors who — in the now familiar and tired style championed by the director of the recent Broadway revivals of Sweeney Todd and Company — play their own musical instruments. To say that the approach doesn’t do justice to the score is an understatement, although to be fair, it’s hardly one of Rodgers’ best. Nor is the libretto by Hammerstein, which seems clearly influenced by both Our Town and Brecht in its stylized account of a young doctor’s life from birth to age 35. Featuring a Greek chorus often commenting on the action, it never fully succeeds in bringing its story or characters to vibrant life. Although undeniably ambitious in its themes, its distancing effect makes it easy to understand why the musical was rejected by audiences at the time.