Portland Press Herald from Portland, Maine • 49

NEXT STOP: BROADWAY It Started In North Bridgton By JERRY WAXMAN THE CLIMAX of the new David Baker Will Holt musical Come Summer Is Loggers' Song The irst Warm a rousing infectious scene representing a group of lumberjacks pushing a log drive down the river By means of ingenious chore ography and Oliver Smith's Giandma Moses type backdrop which unrolls like a huge scroll to show the changing shoreline director chor eographer Agnes DeMille and authors Baker and Holt have given us an effective and ex citing piece of theatre At the Boston opening on Day the audience cheered and applauded long aft er the curtain fell on the first act It was a happy audience that greeted 'the thrice postponed opening and from their affirmative reaction one would have every right to as sume that the Portland natives Baker and Holt had a guaranteed hit on their hands Yet the following morning critics Sam Hirsch of the Herald Traveler and Eliot Nor ton of the Record gave the show markedly unenthuslastlc notices The reviews were no surprise to Baker and Holt They had known the first act would play well it will stay in the show that opens in New York But the second act playing in Boston has little to do with the eventual Broadway premiere It's left over from the Toronto tryout The authors have most of a new act ready to go but such a transition cannot be accomplished overnight or a cast and chor us of 38 people a new act takes time to learn Meanwhile there are eight shows a week to perform while rehearsing the new material As it is now Come Summer is not a great show but it is great entertainment The lyr ics flow and sometimes tell the story better than the dialogue It has exciting dancing by a bright young company Adding in the en dearing work of that Ray Bolger and the splendid work of young stars Cathryn Damon and David Cryer it has all the Ingredients of a Broadway hit The songs Much and the title song probably will become classics in the American musical scene But for all this it quite come off yet DAVID BAKER Will Holt and Burt Sheve lo ve who now directs the book think they know why They are doctoring the show where it needs It And as Baker who has beenjihls route several times says get away from that cliche: Shows written in Boston re What opened in the Hub city was a tri umph of skill over chaos David Baker tells it best 1957 I read the flyleaf of a Lit erary Guild best seller I said to myself at JERRY WAXMAN is particularly well qual ified to write about the new Baker Holt musical Long connected with theater in the Portland area he was responsible for Introducing the two Portland natives in St Louis in 1957 when Will Holt was per forming at the Crystal Palace Night Club and Baker was touring as pianist to Judy Garland rom that and subsequent meet ings came Dozen the title was the show had 13 songs which raised nearly $8000 for the Thea ter of Portland Waxman also sat in on some of the North Bridgton sessions at which Come songs were worked out have liked to have had a finan cial stake in the show he says by the time I got round to that it was al ready the time this might make an Interesting mu sical It was Esther Rainbow On The Road "Little did I know that those fateful words would one day bring me as far as Boston with an adaptation of that strange book by someone named Will Holt More than that If ever dreamed be so up to our ears In a show on which 350 people were work ing like slaves because the investment Is now up to $650000 well In adapting the book for musical comedy Will Holt faced Incredible problems The book Is populated by colorful characters delightful but never quite real The plot barely exists yet the reader wants to believe In the world Esther orbes creates What do the charac ters do? Very little actually Jude an Itinerant portrait painter tours New England In the meets and mar ries lovely spinster Submit Pratt called Mit ty In the play As author Holt sees It the show contains two major problems The first is desire to be free to wander and to paint what he sees The second is the battle that Phlneas Sharp (played by Ray Bolger) puts up against the Establishment Phlneas Is a Broadsideman a wandering minstrel whose living Is made from turning local gossip Into production numbers or read Industrial Revolu the smudge the dirt the regimenta tion of factory workers and the rules laid down by convention Phlneas fights a losing battle and he knows it Holt tries valiantly to detail this battle In the book and at times succeeds admirably At the end of the current second act the entire population of alls revolts against the tide of onrushing Industry In a song entitled Phlneas sees that the rush of Industry threatens the beauty of life In New England and this Is what the song Is all about Thus far critics have missed the point that in its sentiment and its simplicity Come Summer still contains the protest of today While looking for the rock beat and the long hair they have not seen the agelessness of curtain question: got to keep walking there somebody to go with me? HOLT WHOSE REPUTATION in the the atre was originally made as a composer and One of Those has written several successful off Broadway shows but this is his first spin at the big wheel And a big spin He must create a vehicle for an established star from a book which creates Its own world People come to the theatre to see Ray Bolger do his thing which he did so memorably in Charley? and The Wizard of Oz Most of the time this combination is successful and Bol comes off beautifully in the context of Phlneas Sharp At the same time Holt Is working with a director Agnes De Mllle whose style is also well known and unique Occasionally reminiscent of Oklahoma and Carousel her dances are technically perfect and breathtak ing Two nights before the Boston opening I found David Baker In the midst of an or chestra rehearsal In the ballroom of the Bradford Hotel At the break he told stories of getting the show from Toronto to Massa chusetts Cast and crew coming from Toronto by train through the blizzard arrived In Boston 45 hours late The heat In the train alterna ted between below freezing and 95 de grees ood was Impossible to find and fi nally in Buffalo the company sent a man through the snow to a radio station to appeal 1 1 1 1 1 A Sunday EJmgfe I ImglM WBEBBmEBMljE7 djflIBB wBEIB wElMM Sa WmB IWL Ill Leading man Ray Bolger with Dorothy Sands in a scene from the Baker Holt musical Come Summer for help The distress call was answered by the arrival of dozens of sandwiches with too much Three huge trailer trucks loaded with the elaborate scenery required by the show went off the road In upstate New York They did not arrive at the Colonial Theatre In Boston until the morning of the day before the open ing The opening was postponed three times necessitating the return of over $100000 In box office receipts Baker said every time Will and I do something together we run Into a blizzard Remember when we did Dozen for Theatre in Portland? A foot of snow fell Then the thing for the Port land Symphony and It snowed? And the Mar dl Gras we did with Bette Davis and Linda Lavin? The Eastland was full and It snowed all day Do you think God Is trying to tell us DOES BAKER worry about the critics? suppose be an Idiot if I weren't somewhat concerned but you must remember that this rebuilding process happens to everyone You came to Boston to see Cabaret two years ago it was really a shambles Everyone was tearing away at Hal Prince to get rid of the leading lady or to get her a black wig or to give the title song to someone else or to tone down the Nazis take out the Gorilla bit that Joel did listened to everyone and then did It all his way The show won all the awards In sight and is still running It only proves that the show you see during the surgery in Bos ton the one the critics review In New York agonizing but apparently there any other way certain be ready by prevue Baker explained that only five key musi cians had come from New York the rest were local men first trumpeter tells me this is the most difficult score seen since West Side Meanwhile Will Holt sat pounding his elec tric typewriter at the Ritz Carlton tradition al site of rewrite activities After a confer ence analyzing every line in the second act Holt Producer Al Selden and Shevelove took out some of the fey quality left over from the Toronto original At this point such work is particularly backbreaking because each new line must relate to all aspects of the ac tive show scene changes lights costumes and the ngw first act An Important thing was to cut 15 or 20 minutes of running time without losing a valuable song or dance num ber While electricians and grips struggled to set up Tom superb lighting arrange ments and to get Oliver set in place Miss De Mille was putting her dancers through a warm up and Milton Rosenstock was working to make the orchestra sound smooth as butter Producer Selden has to try toMc'eep his finger on pulse At luncheon with the Holts the day before opening he talked about his first meeting with David Baker It was during a show called Month of Sundays first show as a pit pianist Selden was the composer He says that even then he recognized a special quality in Baker and felt that one day he might produce a show that Baker had written Selden spoke of producing Body Beautiful a musical about the prize ring which was Sheldon first Broadway show Harnick was lyricist for air Haired Boy produced in Portland In 1955 Later Harnick wrote iorello and iddler on the Roof Selden Is enthusiastic about his present property and Is convinced it will have a long Broadway run Many people respect judgment He produced Man of La Mancha when no other producer would touch it It has made millions and Is still running In New York and nine world capitals Come Summer began three years ago when Will Holt started serious work on the book Two years ago Holt and Baker spent most of every day writing the score at the home in North Bridgton Mrs Holt actress Dolly Jonah fed them and encouraged them and occasionally joined them at the piano to try out a newly finished song Nineteen songs were written that summer all are In the show in Boston When Baker and Holt first took the orbes book to Agnes De Mllle" she said very colorful but you make a musical out of it! Nothing happens that could stand up as a story Nevertheless she was signed eventually to do the dances and to direct the show as well The search for the proper star was long and difficult then Holt and Baker caught Ray Bolger's act at The Persian Room at the Wal dorf Astoria and were captivated Once he was signed and Oliver magic was as sured for the set designs the pieces of that puzzle called a Broadway show fell together IT STARTED in North Bridgton Maine: but the hopes and dreams of Baker Holt and 350 people concerned with Come Summer pre focussed on March 11 the night of the New York opening If the run at the Lunt ontanne theatre is long and prosperous it will be the begin ning of fame and fortune for the two young men from Portland If the critics scorn the show it is doubtful that even the names of Bolger and De Mllle can fill the house years of effort both happy and frustrating will have gone for nothing It ought to be enough that Come Summer is honest simple and heartwarming with music that will captivate you It may not be bottle of homemade birch beer The show needs fixing but it Is in the hands of professional fixers Although time is un questionably getting short my bet Is they'll have It ready in time Meanwhile what is going on in Boston these days reminds one painfully of a state ment credited to Burt Shevelove when his show A unny Thing Happened On the Way to the orum was trying out in New Haven Throwing his hands skyward he ex claimed Hitler is alive today I hope he is out of town with a BraBBBEE vgp tie gMarj 7 TWO SCENES from Come Summer: above juvenile lead David Cryer with female lead Cathryn Damon Relative unknowns they are destined for stardom if the show succeeds on Broadway Below Ray Bolger who plays Phlneas Sharp a wandering minstrel is joined for a song by Barbara Sharma S1 72 7 MIMi i ijNk I Mg wMbA BL 7 iBlMMlMhu i 'f 1 A 1 1 i 4 ROAD TO BROADWAY 4 Will Holt left and David Baker at the piano started on their current journey to Broadway three years ago by working together oh songs for "Come Summer' at North Bridgton Along the way they gathered up Tridde Rittman as director of choral effects Agnes de Mllle as choreographer and director $ay Bolger as leading man and Miltor Rosenstock right as mu sical director Come Sum mer opened to good notices last month in Toronto un derwent changes including a new first act for the pres ent Boston tryout run which ends Saturday andlt will have major surgery per formed on the second act A before facing its real test 7 the audience and critics in New York on March 11 XJ 4s i I.