"The Decline and Fall of the The Entire World as Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter" @ The York Theater - New York City Article

Ben Bagley's “The Decline and Fall of the Entire World as Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter”
York Theatre Company
619 Lexington Ave, at E. 54th Street
Lower Level 2
October 12-20, 2019

Ben Bagley, best remembered as an album producer, assembled this ambitious revue in the immediate aftermath of Porter’s death in 1964. He combed the songbook for obscurities like “I Introduced” and “Tomorrow” but also a few well-known classics like “Down in the Depths” and “Riding High” - and there’s a decided emphasis on the more overtly comic, full-cast numbers like “Farming.” Decline and Fall has always been notable as perhaps the first full scale songbook / catalog revue (predating even Jacques Brel is Alive and Well by three years off-Broadway) and as a production, it’s still very much worth staging - as the current production proves. The original was distinguished especially by the late Kaye Ballard and her endless comedic talent - including a priceless imitation of Mabel Mercer, the grandest cabaret diva of them all. The new production also brings some of those specialties to bear as well, notably in narrator - singer Lee Roy Reams’s no less hysterical pan-gender recreations of Sophie Tucker (who, he reminds us, actually did appear in a Cole Porter show, Leave it to Me, 1938) and even more so, the remarkable dancing of Danny Gardner, who easily places in anyone’s list of the top five song-and-dance men working today. (One wishes that they had also accommodated singer Lauren Molina’s other skill, namely, playing the cello in her “Skivvies.”) Even if you know the cast album to Decline and Fall, there are surprises galore - Ms. Molina gave us “Down in the Depths” as more of a comic turn than usual, whereas the customarily-cheerful “Experiment” in turn became a soul-searching life-lesson as delivered by Mr. Reems. Diane Phelan had several outstanding solos but was possibly even more valuable as a sparring partner for both Ms. Molino and Mr. Gardner, joining the latter on “But In the Morning, No,” Porter’s classic tale of double-entendre and “double entry.”

Musical director: Eric Svejcar (piano)

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