City Centers Encores!' glowing production of Frank Loesser's semi-operatic The Most Happy Fellais a lush, romantic, festival of song directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw and starring Shuler Hensley and Laura Benanti. Rob Berman's 38-piece orchestra soars, the vocals are sublime and the audience is treated to an outstanding performance for the memory book.
Loesser, who wrote the show's score, libretto and stage directions, adapted his musical from They Knew What They Wanted, a 1924 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Sidney Howard. It's a familiar story, set in 1927 and largely told in recitative and music. Tony, an aging, plain-looking Napa Valley vintner (Shuler Hensley), spots the perfect wife in a San Francisco restaurant, a young waitress whom he calls Rosabella (Laura Benanti). Tony's self-esteem is not high, as he’s convinced by his overbearing sister, Maria (Jessica Molaskey) that he is not handsome, not bright and will never marry. He does not speak English well. Nevertheless, Tony decides to go for it. Without meeting her, he sends Rosabella love notes, and when she asks for a photograph, instead of sending his own photo, he substitutes a shot of his handsome young foreman Joe (Cheyenne Jackson). Rosabella, tired of her lonely life in San Francisco, agrees to go to Napa Valley and marry Tony (thinking, of course, he is Joe).
It's a sweet story with familiar barriers for the couple to overcome...and then there is the music. This production's cup runneth over with almost two hours of thrilling ballads and catchy production numbers that dramatize the romance of Tony and his Rosabella. Benanti, who has proven her dramatic, comedic, and vocal talents on stage, has a sublime showcase for her crystalline soprano with “Somebody Somewhere” and “Warm All Over.” Compassionate and sensitive, Benanti is ideal in the role. A fine actress, she is the warm Rosabella who first refuses to marry this plain man who tricked her. In fact, during her early disappointing days in Napa, after learning that her intended husband is "an old man," she and Joe have a brief fling.
Cheyenne Jackson, is well chosen for the role of Joe, the wandering foreman who has one outstanding moment to show his restless character with a stirring, "Joey, Joey, Joey."
If Hemsley's voice is not matinee-idol perfection, he warmly delivers Tony's good heart and joyful enthusiasm and also his slips of quick impatience and flashes of temper. After their shaky start, he tries to reignite his relationship with Rosabella with the sunny, "Happy to Make Your Acquaintance." When Rosabella learns to love Tony, they touch the soul with the passionate ballad, “My Heart Is So Full of You.” Garbed in black, Tony's unmarried sister, Maria (Jessica Molaskey), devoted her life to caring for her brother, at the same time undermining him. Playing Maria, Jessica Molaskey displays her soprano training, convincing Tony that he needs her with songs of past memories. Kevin Vortmann is a sympathetic town doctor with an impressive tenor voice.
Heidi Blickenstaff is an charmer as Cleo, Rosabella's wisecracking waitress friend that Tony has sent for to come to Napa and cheer up Rosabella. Cleo opens the show in the restaurant, complaining, "Oooh! My Feet!" but once in Napa, she meets a farmer, Herman (Jay Armstong Johnson). He's a good-natured chap, and the two remember their hometown of Dallas, leading one of the show's most popular ensemble tunes, "Big D." Loesser's work abounds with vibrant tunes with a frisky cast and Nicholaw's colorful choreography. Johnson joins Ryan Bauer-Walsh, Ward Billeisen and Arlo Hill with the crooked cowboy legwork and smooth harmony of "Standing on the Corner." The trio of Zachary James, Bradley Dean and Brian Cali bring in the eye-catching party spirit that is truly "Abondanza" with flair and virtuosity.
The Most Happy Fella opened at the Imperial Theater in 1956 starring opera star Robert Weede and Jo Sullivan. With all its exhilarating operetta flourishes, Loesser included plenty of earthy pop feel-good touches and insisted on calling it "an extended musical comedy." One thing is sure, in the Encores! glorious production, it is a treat for a most happy audience!
