HOLIDAY shows are, for the most part, hateful.
Sappy, cloying, me chanical and cynical, they’re made for out-of-towners brain-dead after a long day of Christmas shopping.
It’s best to avoid the Marriott Marquis Theatre in November and December, when the producers of “White Christmas” pipe the cast recording into the streets. Happy tapping and peppy Broadway singing are horrible sounds, and should be regulated by the noise code of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.
All that said, there is a holiday show in the works that just might be a cut above the rest.
“Elf,” based on the popular 2003 Will Ferrell movie, was given an elaborate staged reading last week, and the buzz is pretty good.
“It was a pleasant holiday surprise,” says a potential investor.
“I’d rather sit through ‘Elf’ than ‘White Christmas’ any day,” says another.
Truth be told, nobody expected much from the reading. The producer is Warner Brothers, whose big Broadway credit is “Lestat,” which ran 33 previews and 39 performances, and lost $12 million. And the songwriters are Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin, who inflicted the tacky “The Wedding Singer” on us a few seasons back.
But Thomas Meehan, who co-wrote “The Producers” and “Hairspray,” and Bob Martin, who created the wonderful “The Drowsy Chaperone,” have come up with a witty script laced with enough cynicism to keep sentimentality in check.
And the score is said to be tuneful.
The show tells the story of a normal-size man, raised by elves in the North Pole, who comes to New York in search of his real father.
“It follows the movie pretty closely, but it doesn’t feel like a retread,” one person says.
Casey Nicholaw, who choreographed “Spamalot,” directed the reading, which featured George Wendt as Santa Claus, Christian Anderson as Buddy (the big elf), Mark Jacoby as Buddy’s father and Beth Leavel as his mother.
Warner Brothers spent a lot of money on the reading, which, sources say, almost played like a full show, complete with props.
Some insiders said a scene involving a genuine dwarf was awkward, and should be cut for reasons of taste. But on the whole, most people had a good time.
“Elf” is strictly holiday fare.
As one person says, “Nobody’s going to want to see it in August.”
Look for it on Broadway this time next year, crushing “White Christmas.”
GENE Barry, who died last week, gave a memorable performance as Georges in the original Broadway production of “La Cage aux Folles.”
But according to a new book, backstage he was a jerk.
“Party Animals,” by Robert Hofler, is a biography of impresario Allan Carr, who produced “La Cage” in 1983.
In an excellent chapter on the making of the show, Hofler reports that Barry was so afraid of contracting AIDS, he refused to ride in elevators with gay cast members.
He also gave interviews designed to make sure the public knew he was straight.
“I have nothing against homosexuals, but I have no part of their polemics,” he said.
Asked if he was worried that people would think he was gay because he was playing a gay man, he responded: “People never think you’re a murderer if you’re playing a murderer.”
Shirley Herz, the show’s publicist, says in the book that Barry kept asking her if people would think he was gay because he was in the show.
“Not if you aren’t,” she told him.
John Weiner, who played the juvenile in the show, eventually got fed up with Barry’s paranoia.
He confronted him one night in the wings just before the show started: “Gene, you really have nothing to worry about. You’re not going to catch AIDS unless you’re bending over and — ” (this being a family newspaper, I’ll let you finish the quote).
Hofler, a fine reporter, notes that the atmosphere backstage at “La Cage” was pretty raunchy. Carr and his cohorts, he writes, had their pick of the younger male cast members.
Jon Wilner, who handled the advertising, tells Hofler: “It was incestuous. Everyone was sleeping with the Cagelles. Everyone had a Cagelle. It was a great time.”
“Party Animals: A Hollywood Tale of Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll Starring the Fabulous Allan Carr” will be published early next year.
It’s a good, gossipy read.