REVIEW: ‘Nymph Errant’ pops up in New York

Cole Porter’s rarely-done 1933 musical arrives in a trim package

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

OFF BROADWAY REVIEW

The most legendary among Cole Porter’s many musicals is “Nymph Errant,” a lavish 1933 London extravaganza that starred Gertrude Lawrence as a runaway schoolgirl gleaming amid risqué situations.

Although Porter thought that “Nymph Errant” was one of his finest scores – and it really is a beauty -- the show never reached Broadway. Since then, due to the daunting size of its cast and other considerations (more about which in a moment), the musical rarely has been staged anywhere.

An enjoyable “Nymph Errant” now arrives on Theater Row in a trim and inventive little revival by Prospect Theater Company, an enterprising troupe that often does well by the singular fare it produces.

A show strictly for Porter fans and/or musical theater buffs, “Nymph Errant” is a screwy, sketchy 1930s epic about Evangeline, a sweet English miss who leaves her Swiss finishing school and embarks upon some racy adventures around the Mediterranean.

More or less innocently beguiling a series of sexy men, Evangeline survives a Turkish massacre and even lands in a harem but somehow remains unsullied until she arrives home in her Oxford garden.

Such total frivolity is wedded to a sleek, ultra-sophisticated Porter score that yielded no major standards, although the melting “How Could We Be Wrong?” is a honey. Perhaps the best known songs are “The Physician,” one of Porter’s wackiest of laundry-list novelty numbers, and “The Cocotte,” a witty portrait of a disillusioned dame.

For this production, writer Rob Urbinati smartly edits and lightly tinkers with Romney Brent’s unwieldy libretto (based upon James Lever’s bestseller). The talky, episodic story still remains terribly silly stuff, but now at least it is bearable. The score has been augmented by four well-chosen songs from other Porter shows of the period. All told, this is a version that respects and resembles the original musical.

A key to the success of Urbinati’s concept is the casting of 10 actors mostly in multiple roles, in which their presence lends extra unity to the script’s far-flung doings. So the Tony Award-winning Cady Huffman vivaciously pops up as a bubbly chemistry teacher, a fading seductress, a rich American social-climber and an athletic lesbian.

Meanwhile, the roly-poly Sorab Wadia drolly portrays a French impresario, a German nudist, a Greek magnate and the chief eunuch of a harem. Additional gents who come and go among Evangeline’s escapades are comically handled by Abe Goldfarb, who serially plays an English vicar, a suicidal Russian, a Venetian nobleman and a Turkish marauder. Tall, handsome Andrew Brewer sturdily appears as an American sanitary engineer and the nice boy back home that haunts our heroine’s dreams.

Evangeline is sung and played prettily but unassertively by Jennifer Blood, a willowy, dimpled blond who resembles Sarah Jessica Parker without the verve. It is too bad that “The Physician,” which somewhat defines Evangeline’s ambivalent nature, was reassigned to the role of Haidee, a Memphis born chanteuse. A young Elisabeth Welch became a London star as Haidee in 1933, but here Natalie E. Carter heartily embodies the singer as a middle-aged red-hot-mama type.

Evangeline’s school chums, who intermittently materialize in the plot, are brightly played by Sara Jayne Blackmore, Laura Cook, Amy Jo Jackson and Aubrey Sinn. They further depict chorus girls, tourists, servants and other background figures.

Speaking of the background, designer Brian Prather’s clever scenery involves steamer trunks that open to disclose amusing bits of geographical atmosphere (a desert oasis location is depicted by a box of sand, toy palm trees and a pack of Camel cigarettes). Costume designer Whitney Locher dresses everybody attractively in snazzy ‘30s modes and otherwise discreetly outfits the members of a nudist colony.

The music arrangements and orchestrations by Frederick Alden Terry possess period flavor and are sweetly rendered by the performers and a five-member band.

Staging the show swiftly and confidently, director-choreographer Will Pomerantz gives his production the stylized feeling of a cartoon, which suits the trivial story, but makes sure that these comical matters never descend into camp. This bijou realization of a jumbo-scaled musical is a canny way to bring the zany “Nymph Errant” to life.

“Nymph Errant” continues through July 29 at the Houseman Theater/Theater Row, 410 W. 42nd St., New York. Call (212) 239-6200 or visit www.prospecttheater.org.