Gimme Some Singing O’Neill. Don’t Be Stingy, Baby
DAVID ROONEYJuly 29, 2012: A musical version of Eugene O’Neill’s “Anna Christie” sounds only marginally more plausible than a gotta-sing, gotta-dance Tyrone family in a reworked “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” Imagine the 11 o’clock number: “Malt Whiskey, Morphine and Memories.” But “New Girl in Town” was the creation of a formidable group of showmen. Produced by Harold Prince, it had a book and direction by George Abbott, music and lyrics by Bob Merrill and choreography by Bob Fosse. It also had Broadway’s greatest dance performer, Gwen Verdon, demonstrating her dramatic chops in the lead role of O’Neill’s title character, a Swedish milkmaid who arrives not exactly fresh from the Minnesota farm to the seedy New York waterfront. Verdon shared Tony Award honors with Thelma Ritter as the jaded girlfriend of Anna’s father in the original 1957 Broadway production, which ran for a year.
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