Will Friedwald previews Musicals Tonight presents Bells Are Ringing - New York City Article

Bells Are Ringing, one of the all-time classic musical comedies (by Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Jules Styne), was most recently revived in a beautiful concert production by City Center Encores in 2010. (And, about a decade before that, in a full scale Broadway revival starring Faith Prince in 2001.) Yet I’m looking forward to this more intimate staging at Musicals tonight possibly even more, for one good reason. The Encores! version starred Kelli O’Hara, a marvelous leading lady with a miraculous soprano, but not a notable comedienne. Contrastingly, the central role in the current production - Ella Peterson, a telephone operator who gets entangled in the personal lives of her clients - is essayed by a relative newcomer with the unlikely name of Oakley Boycott. Ms. Boycott is a genuine eccentric and a true theatrical character: she’s worked as a model, but unlike most of her sisters in the trade, she has anything but a typical face, in fact, it’s the kind of punim that you can’t forget. She can also sing, dance, and act, but it’s her unique ability to be both funny and pretty - not to mention highly sympathetic - that stands her in good stead as a potentially worthy heiress to the legacy of Judy Holliday, who created the role 60 years ago. In an age when most younger Broadway hopefuls are willfully interchangeable, Ms. Boycott is one-of-a-kind.