At ‘Broadway Jukebox,’ Audience Names the Tunes

It is special request season for musical comedy fans on Theater Row this summer. Special refers both to what is billed as “Ed Linderman’s Broadway Jukebox” and to the finesse with which it is presented. This is Broadway with a difference.

Festivities commence in the foyer of the John Houseman Theatre. Arriving spectators are given a list of more than 80 show tunes from productions that either never made it to Broadway or had untimely closings. Audience members are invited to fill out ballots nominating the tunes they wish to hear and naming those to whom they wish the music to be dedicated.

Linderman and his winning ensemble take it from there.

“Broadway Jukebox” gets enthusiastically down to business with the rousing “Show Me Where the Good Times Are” (Kenneth Jacobson-Rhoda Roberts) from “Hot September,” the 1965 adaptation of “Picnic.” It closed in Boston after 12 performances. Robustly sung by Linderman’s cast, it sets the good times rolling at the Houseman.

Thereafter, the jukebox jamboree moves forward with solos and vocal combinations that more than justify Linderman’s confidence in these mostly unfamiliar songs from forgotten musicals. The material is performed with wonderful freshness and relish by a cast consisting of Robert Michael Baker, Susan Flynn, Beth Leavel, Gerry McIntyre, Amelia Prentice and Sal Viviano. Guided by director-choreographer Bill Guske, these fine young singer-dancers amply justify Linderman’s Broadway revivalism.

Some of the songwriters represented at a recent preview are little known or forgotten today. Among the familiar names--though represented by lesser-known compositions--were Dietz and Schwartz, Rodgers and Sondheim, Bock and Harnick, Knader and Ebb, Noel Coward, Bernstein and Leigh, Jerry Herman, Ellington and LaTouche and Styne-Comden-Green, whose “You Mustn’t Be Discouraged” might serve as a theme-within-a-theme for Linderman’s show.

Although the candidates for selection are evenly divided between what he calls “Up-Tempos and Comedy Songs,” the audience opted strongly for up-tempo and comedy. “If we didn’t do yours,” the affable Mr. L. said, “it’s your invitation to come back.”