Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – J2 Spotlight winningly commences its 2023 season with a rare revival of Kander & Ebb’s WOMAN OF THE YEAR

• By drediman
• April 24, 2023
• No Comments

This past weekend, I caught one of the final performances of J2 Spotlight Musical Theatre Company’s revival of Woman of the Year. The production commences J2 Spotlight’s 2023 season, which continues over the next month with other “lost” musicals – Jule Style and Bob Merrill’s Sugar (the little-known first musical adaptation of the film Some Like It Hot) and Marvin Hamlisch and David Zippel’s The Goodbye Girl (another film-to-stage adaptation which is being revived with the enticing pairing of Sierra Boggess and Santino Fontana). Based on the 1942 movie of the same name – starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn – the musical depicts the tug-of-war romantic relationship between Tess Harding and Sam Craig, a famous television reporter and an equally famous cartoonist, respectively.

Featuring a score by Kander & Ebb and a book by Peter Stone, Woman of the Year originally opened at the Palace Theatre in 1981 as a vehicle for the one-and-only Lauren Bacall. Although the show won deserved Tonys for all four efforts, the show has since been rarely mounted, likely because of the ironically dated updates implemented for the musical, as well as having the Funny Girl-like task of casting the role of Tess Harding, which was so iconically played by Bacall in the original production. Enter Janine LaManna, who in the title role commands the stage in a smashing, immensely charismatic turn. She also sings like a dream, which brings surprising beauty to Kander & Ebb’s songs. As Sam Craig, John Leone gives a sturdy, likable performance. Other notable performances include Kelly Lester as Jan, Rebecca Spigelman as Helga, and Eric Michael Gillett as Gerald/Larry – all of whom deliver accomplished, finely-etched comedic performances.

The J2 Spotlight production – which marks the first time the musical has been professionally staged in New York since the original (!) – has been directed by artistic director Robert W. Schneider, whose scrappy but winning and big-hearted production moves things along at a wonderfully spry pace. There’s a charming and unadorned “let’s put on a show” quality to the staging that puts the focus squarely on the material (something that sometimes fails to register in the increasingly elaborate productions over at New York City Center’s beloved Encores! series). Throughout, the the four-person orchestra and a hardworking ensemble lovingly brought Kander & Ebb’s underrated, irrepressibly tuneful score to life.

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WOMAN OF THE YEAR
Off-Broadway, Musical
J2 Spotlight Musical Theatre Company at Theatre Row
2 hours, 30 minutes (with one intermission)
Closed