Rediscovered Peach

Caught the last night of the Musicals in Mufti staging of  TWO BY TWO, the 1970 Richard Rodgers/Martin Charnin/Peter Stone musical about Noah and the Ark which became notorious for its star Danny Kaye's unprofessional behaviour when he injured his foot and played a portion of the season in a wheelchair and on crutches, subsequently turning an ensemble piece for eight actors into a Danny Kaye sideshow.

With a revised book by Stone and Charnin and two added songs (one of which used the tune "Willing & Eager" from the movie STATE FAIR), tonight's presentation was far more evenly balanced with very charming and funny performances from Jason Alexander and Tovah Feldshuh as Mr. & Mrs. Noah and some lush vocals from Natalie Cortez (GIANT) and the delicious Tiffan Borelli in a role created by Madeline Kahn. Based on a Clifford Odets play, "The Flowering Peach", the musical presents the Biblical characters as a squabbling Jewish family trying to deal with generational conflict.

As it was the last performance, author/director Martin Charnin posed for a cast portrait after the curtain call and as I was in the second row I boldly took a couple of snaps myself. What have I turned into????