Word: marianism
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PROMISES, PROMISES is an imitation of past successes, with a plot from the Wilder-Diamond film The Apartment and a structure borrowed from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Jerry Orbach and Marian Mercer turn in the best performances of the evening...
PROMISES, PROMISES follows all the hallowed tactics for promoting mediocrity into success. Jerry Orbach is splendid as the tall, gangling antihero, and Marian Mercer turns in the acting gem of the evening as an amorous alcoholic pickup. But the comic tone of Neil Simon's book is bland rather than pithy, and most of the songs of the Burt Bacharach score are interchangeably tuneless...
PROMISES, PROMISES follows all the hallowed tactics for promoting mediocrity into success. Jerry Orbach is splendid as the tall, gangling antihero, and Marian Mercer turns in the acting gem of the evening as an amorous alcoholic pickup. But the comic tone of Neil Simon's book is bland rather than pithy, and the songs of the Burt Bacharach score are for the most part interchangeably tuneless...
While Jerry Orbach is splendid, his performance lacks something of that subtle manic hysteria with which he fleshed out a man as well as a part in Scuba Duba. The acting gem of the evening is the bit part of an amorous alcoholic pickup played by Marian Mercer. Vocally, she slithers through her lines with the glissando of a soprano trombone. Her timing is perfect. She braces her body as if she could be pushed over with a swizzle stick, and she convicts the show of mere competence by her own distinction...
...Michael Bennett's fast and loose choreography, particularly the sardine-can motif with which he conjures up a Second Avenue bar, of Robin Wagner's sensible sets, of Jonathan Tunick's really hot orchestrations, and of Robert Moore's uncommanding but attractive direction. Mention must be made of Marian Mercer, who in a small part does the best musical-comedy drunk in memory...