There’s a lot of fun stuff in “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” a new musical made of old parts. For starters, this Gershwin jukebox is loaded with unimpeachable classics and a few brilliant obscurities. They’re strung together by a zany, Prohibition-set book inspired by the George and Ira musical “Oh, Kay!” — which premiered at the very same Imperial Theatre in 1926.
We also get the fabulous Kelli O’Hara, who after “The Pajama Game” and “South Pacific” confirms she’s among the finest interpreters of the Great American Songbook on Broadway right now.
Here, she plays Billie Bendix, a tomboyish bootlegger who croons “Someone To Watch Over Me” while wielding a rifle, and slapsticks her way through “Treat Me Rough” — she sings while executing a medal-worthy gymnastics routine. You have to wonder if there’s anything O’Hara can’t do.
She even pulls off the steps director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall cooked up, and O’Hara isn’t known for her hoofing.
Add a big bunch of ripe second bananas, swell chorus boys and girls, grand sets by Derek McLane and stylish costumes by Martin Pakledinaz, and you have nearly all the basics for a tasty Broadway show.
Except for one.
You see, Billie’s love interest is a hapless, womanizing “wealthy playboy” named Jimmy Winter. And he’s played by Matthew Broderick, in his first musical outing since “The Producers.”
It’s hard to say this delicately, so let’s just rip off the Band-Aid: This is one of the most unappealing performances of the past few years.
For us to buy Billie’s love, Jimmy has to be goofily charming. But Broderick keeps a frozen half-smile pasted on his face the entire time, so his Jimmy just looks semi-idiotic. What a catch!
And while his thin, reedy singing voice has an appropriate period feel, the star isn’t enough of a mover to pull off Marshall’s dance numbers.
Unfortunately, he has quite a few of them, including an extended pas de deux with O’Hara where you can almost see him count beats in his head, like a Week 1 contestant on “Dancing With the Stars.”
At least you can block out this problem for large chunks of the evening. Following the procedure established by Gershwin-based musicals like “My One and Only” and “Crazy for You,” book writer Joe DiPietro (“Memphis”) crammed the show with oddball characters and subplots.
There are groaners, as when fake butler Cookie (the hardworking Michael McGrath) tells Billie, “You’re smart, you’re shrewd and you got the tenacity of an Irish priest at an open bar.” DiPietro isn’t a wit, but he throws so much stuff at the wall that some of it is bound to stick.
And the primo supporting cast is talented enough to sell it all. Judy Kaye, as a temperance leader gone tipsy, literally swings from the chandelier. Jennifer Laura Thompson is a riot as “the finest interpreter of modern dance in the whole world.” Chris Sullivan and Robyn Hurder deliciously play up the loony romance between a big galoot and a ditzy chorus girl.
Even at his most leaden, Broderick can’t quite sink this ship.