Reviews NYCOff-Broadway Published 19 March 2023

Review: Dear World at New York City Center

New York City Center ⋄ 15 March-19 March

Encores! presents a glittering revival of this Jerry Herman musical starring the incomparable Donna Murphy. Lane Williamson reviews.

Lane Williamson

“Dear World” at New York City Center (Photo: Joan Marcus)

This is how it should be done. Encores! opens its 2023 season with a revival of Jerry Herman’s 1969 semi-flop Dear World in a fizzy, gorgeous, charming production starring the incomparable Donna Murphy. It has it all: a lush orchestra playing a forgotten score, Broadway luminaries, laughs, romance, social commentary, and some minimal, but captivating design. I cannot think of a time when Encores! has so fulfilled its mission to shine a light on these musicals that have slipped through the cracks. Sure, Dear World has its fans and Angela Lansbury won a Tony in its original production, but it hardly sits next to Herman’s other work: Hello, Dolly!, Mame, La Cage aux Folles, or even Mack and Mabel, which Encores! revived to less success in 2020. But here, under the assured direction of Josh Rhodes and the baton of the program’s new music director, Mary-Mitchell Campbell, all the aspects coalesce into a glittering musical gem. 

Countess Aurelia (Murphy), affectionately known as “The Madwoman of Chaillot”, is a Parisian kook much beloved by the denizens of a local cafe. With her voluminous white hair, pancake makeup, and eccentric manner of dress, she is a friend to everyone and looks at the world not through rose colored glasses, but through the bottom of drinking glasses, slicked over with the remnants of alcohol. Aurelia has an unwaveringly positive attitude. She believes in music, in laughter, in her memories of a time before the war. We never find out what happened to her lost love, Albert Bertaut, but the 1948 setting offers a clue. 

A greedy prospector (Stanley Wayne Mathis) discovers oil under Aurelia’s cafe and conspires with the president (Brooks Ashmanskas) to blow up the cafe and everything in it. Julian (Phillip Johnson Richardson), the low-level employee they select to plant the bomb, thwarts their mission by throwing the explosive into the river, but he contemplates also jumping over for being associated with such wicked men. He is rescued by a policeman and brought into the cafe where Aurelia urges him to embrace life and he falls in love with a waitress, Nina (Samantha Williams). Julian reveals the dastardly plan and Aurelia decides it’s up to her to stop the president and prospector from ruining her beautiful life. 

Of course, the plot is a lot zanier than even that sounds. Rhodes strikes a tone that exists somewhere between the absurd and the rational–everything makes sense to Aurelia and everyone loves her so much, it makes sense to them, too. Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s book asks so much of the performers and the designers–it goes to a lot of places and does a lot of things–and Rhodes and scenic Designer Paul Tate Depoo III make them all feel effortless. Depoo has narrowed the playing space down to a small strip at the front of the stage and an elevated walkway for entrances. With all the furniture for the whole show stacked up in front of the orchestra, the design feels like you’ve walked into a cluttered antique shop, but the way Rhodes has the ensemble move the furniture into place is so smooth you don’t even notice how the pieces end up where they are. It keeps the show moving from location to location without needing to do anything more than shift a chair or open a trunk. 

Depoo’s skyscape features several clouds that come up and down to fill the vast height of City Center’s space and offers breathtaking scenic images. A shimmering mylar curtain descends at the back of the stage for a rain storm and, coupled with Amith Chandrashaker’s lighting, it’s more effective than any actual rain. More homespun theatre magic, please!

Perhaps nothing is more magical than Donna Murphy, though. Aside from her incredible voice, on stunning display in Aurelia’s anthem “I Don’t Want to Know” and her moving ballad “And I Was Beautiful”, she’s just so funny, it’s often hard to remember which thing you’re laughing at now. She has impeccable timing and an ability to root the silliness in intelligence and intention. It’s clear she’s as open-hearted and welcoming as the Countess. Everyone on stage looks at her with such love and you can’t fake that. Her presence is enveloping. The part requires a star and the production has the brightest possible in Murphy.

Other standouts from the cast include Williams, in thrilling voice on her solo number “I’ve Never Said I Love You”, and Andréa Burns and Ann Harada as Aurelia’s friends and accomplices. Burns’ character runs a flea market and Harada’s has an invisible dog and sometimes pretends she’s a cat. They are incredibly funny and their overlapping “Tea Party Trio” with Murphy is musical comedy gold. As the Sewerman who assists Aurelia with her plot, Christopher Fitzgerald further proves himself to be one of the smartest comedians on the Broadway stage. He is tasked with playing the judge, the lawyer, and the defendant in the mock trial song “Have a Little Pity on the Rich” and only Fitzgerald could succeed so well with it.

Why isn’t Josh Rhodes directing full-scale revivals on Broadway? He has such a knack for staging–look at the way he arranges the ensemble across the narrow playing space. You always know who’s in charge, who’s the focus, what’s the point of the scene. He knows how to create a moment–watch when the entire company jumps into a body of water. When was the last time you saw something so fun? He knows how to pace out even the most difficult pieces of plot to get to the heart of the story–listen to the space he gives Murphy and Richardson in the scene where she thinks he’s Bertaut. Rhodes knows how to create a world, how to fill it with extraordinary talent, and how to amplify that talent in service of the show. Let him do whatever he wants!


Lane Williamson

Lane Williamson is co-editor of Exeunt and a contributing critic at The Stage. He is a member of the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle.

Review: Dear World at New York City Center Show Info


Produced by New York City Center Encores!

Directed by Josh Rhodes

Written by Jerome Lawrence, Robert E. Lee (book), based on "The Madwoman of Chaillot" by Jean Giraudoux as adapted by Jean Valency

Choreography by Josh Rhodes

Scenic Design Paul Tate Depoo III (set), Toni Leslie James (costumes)

Lighting Design Amith Chandrashaker

Sound Design Scott Lehrer

Cast includes Brooks Ashmanskas, Giuseppe Bausilio, Andréa Burns, Darlesia Cearcy, Cicily Daniels, Ben Fankhauser, Christopher Fitzgerald, Brian Flores, Blair Goldberg, Ann Harada, Kody Jauron, Phillip Johnson Richardson, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Aaron Kaburick, Eddie Korbich, Josh Lamon, Will Mann, Stanley Wayne Mathis, Donna Murphy, Manna Nichols, Emilie Renier, Caesar Samayoa, Phumzile Sojola, Samantha Williams, Jessica Tyler Wright, Franca Vercelloni, Kathy Voytko, Patrick Wetzel

Original Music Jerry Herman

Link
Show Details & Tickets

Running Time 2hr 30min


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