Daddy Long Legs
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Cititour.com Review
“You know you’ve got spunk. I hate spunk,” fictional TV producer Lou Grant told Mary Richards on an early episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Well, just think of what Grant would have made of Jerusha Abbott, the headstrong, good-hearted, and very spunky orphan first brought to life by Jean Webster in her 1911 novel “Daddy Long Legs.”
While she’s been incarnated over the years in film by everyone from Janet Gaynor to Leslie Caron (yes, the character’s name was changed in the 1956 musical), I’m not sure she’s ever been portrayed as exquisitely as Megan McGinnis does in the new two-character musical “Daddy Long Legs,” which is in an open-ended run at Off-Broadway’s Davenport Theatre.
Blessed with a glorious voice, a glowing smile that can quickly turn upside down, and a rare combination of strength and vulnerability, McGinnis practically commands our love and respect as Jerusha struggles to adjust to college, fails (then succeeds) as a writer, and corresponds faithfully with her never-responsive benefactor, whom she has nicknamed “Daddy Long Legs.” More impressively, McGinnis never wears out her welcome, even though she onstage throughout a show that should be a 90-minute heart-tugger instead of a 2 ½-hour tuner that occasionally tests the patience of the mind and the tuchas.
Yes, composer-lyricist Paul Gordon can write wonderful songs. I expect casting directors will hear “Like Other Girls” or “The Secret of Happiness” at auditions for years to come. But many of them are filled with little more than minutiae, often repeat the information from prior songs, and periodically leave you more interested in scanning the seemingly zillion of books on David Farley’s detailed set than whatever either McGinnis or her strappingly handsome co-star Paul Alexander Nolan (cast somewhat against type as befuddled bachelor/benefactor Jervis Pendleton) happen to be singing about.
Perhaps the problem is that Gordon (who wrote “Jane Eyre”) and “Les Miserables” helmer John Caird, who is responsible for this show’s direction and book, are simply too fond of epics to realize that this essentially epistolary musical should be no longer than A.R. Gurney’s compact “Love Letters.” To paraphrase Mr. Grant, “You’ve got length. I hate length.”
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://www.daddylonglegsmusical.com
Cast
Megan McGinnis, Paul Alexander Nolan
Open/Close Dates
Opening 9/10/2015
Closing 6/6/2016
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
Davenport Theatre
354 West 45th Street
New York, NY 10036
Map
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