Promenade

Promenade
Encores! Off-Center

at New York City Center

Score: B

Encores! Off-Center production of “Promenade” is exactly what makes Encores! such a valuable resource for people who love musicals.  This wacky 1965 revue by Al Carmine and Maria Irene Fornes is a classic example of the productions that made these two writers at the forefront of the burgeoning Off-Off-Broadway movement.  Carmines' Judson Poets' Theatre at the Judson Memorial Church, along with Cafe Cino and La Mama, brought all types of experimental theatre to lower Manhattan.  Ms. Fornes was one of the most influential playwrights who inhabited these innovative playhouses.

Encore’s! production is absolutely faithful to the original.  Like much of Ms. Fornes’ work, it is difficult to describe the style and point of view of “Promenade.”  Fornes works tended to be non-linear and frequently abstract.  “Promenade” follows two escaped prisoners as they encounter the rich and famous and powerful. “Promenade” is a series of bizarre production numbers and solos performed by a cast in outlandish costumes in the style of the Ziegfeld Follies gone crazy.  But the lyrics are 100% Fornes: “I’m flighty, frivolous, and vane and you, scoundrel, you treated me just like you treated others, who do you think you are?” “Madness is the lack of compassion and there’s little compassion in the world,” “Money makes you crazy,” “I want to be naked, too.” 

The Encores! production makes the most of these goofy numbers.  There are lots of laughs and every so often, the critique of American culture seeps out and hits the audience in the face.  The company is outstanding; quite possibly the best I have seen at an Encores! production, even those shows that featured “big name” performers. Their voices are perfectly suited to their numbers and several reach almost operatic tones.  Director Laurie Woolery and choreographer Hope Boykin make each number absurdly entertaining, supported by a perfect music ensemble led by Greg Jarrett.  Clint Ramos’ costumes are glittering and outrageous.  In short, this is a wonderful production.

Unfortunately, at two hours with no intermission, the luster of the piece wears thin after 80 or 90 minutes and its commentary is repeated to the point of losing its novelty.  Repetitiion was not uncommon in the works of Messrs. Fornes and Carmine and much of the unique style emerges from the parroting.  Still, “Promenade” is a lot of fun and should be appealing to those of us who lived through the evolution of American avant-garde theatre.