"Seesaw" A Musical by Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields & Michael Bennett @ the new J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company - New York City Article

“Seesaw”
A Musical by Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields & Michael Bennett
J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company
Theatre Row (410 W. 42nd St, NYC, NY, 10036)
Through Sunday February 23

For information and reservations, please click here:

Here’s extending a warm welcome (not to mention a laurel and hearty handclasp) to the J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company, off-Broadway’s latest producer of intimate but fully-staged performances (with full choreography) of worthy vintage shows that probably are not likely to receive a full-fledged revival anytime soon - in the tradition of City Center’s venerable Encores! Series and the York Theater’s “Musicals in Mufti.” (The J2 refers to producer Jim Jimirro, a venerable expert on musical theater and the Great American Songbook, who has taken over the spot vacated by Mel Miller’s long-running “Musicals Tonight” series, and founded this new organization with Artistic Director Robert W. Schneider, who is also helming this inaugural production.)
The 1973 Seesaw was a show, that, on paper, should have run longer than it’s 300 or so performances on Broadway, whose assets include a strong book (based on the play Two for the Seesaw by William Gibson), memorable characters, and a believable contemporary story about a romance between a dancer and a lawyer. Yet the show’s greatest strength was its score - the final for lyricist Dorothy Fields, who had managed to stay current and fresh after nearly 50 years of writing for Broadway, and composer Cy Coleman, whose work here seems highly influenced by both Burt Bacharach (as in Promises! Promises!) and the 1970s power chord style then being used by Stephen Sondheim (in Company and Follies). At least three of the songs introduced here have been cabaret staples ever since - “It’s Not Where You Start,” It’s Where You Finish,” “Welcome to Holiday Inn,” and “Nobody Does It Like Me” - and overall, Seesaw is also a show that Broadway geeks have been curious about for 45 years.

Directed by Robert W. Schneider, the company’s Artistic Director/Co-Founder, the Seesaw cast will feature Kyle Caress, Chaz Alexander Coffin, Katie Griffith, Caleb Grochalski, Morgan Hecker, Stephanie Israelson, Halle Mastronerardino, J Savage and Andy Tighe.