‘On the Twentieth Century’: Theater Review

At the top of Act II in “On the Twentieth Century,” four tap-dancing redcap Pullman porters work overtime to funnel syncopated energy into the facile analogy of “Life is Like a Train.” But this strained farce set in 1932 aboard the luxury Chicago-to-New York express passenger service is a musical stubbornly lacking in locomotion, its steam engine spouting plumes of desperation. Co-stars Kristin Chenoweth and Peter Gallagher give it their all, delivering exactly the kind of over-the-top caricatures the antiquated material demands. However, while director Scott Ellis has a proven track record with comedy, he’s off his game in this belabored revival. I should confess straight off that, based on the 1978 original Broadway cast album alone, I’ve never much cared for the show. The mock operetta idiom adopted by composer Cy Coleman becomes tiresome, and the melodramatic histrionics of the lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green lack the lighter-than-air touch of their work on, say, “On the Town.” The recording’s one bright spot is the peerless Madeline Kahn doing “Babette,” a schizophrenic second-act showstopper in which vainglorious diva Lily Garland wrestles with the choice of playing a nobly suffering Mary Magdalene or a Mayfair floozy — “depraved, debauched and déclassé.” Claiming vocal fatigue, Kahn abruptly exited the production under a cloud just two months after opening, making her understudy, Judy Kaye, a Broadway star overnight.