Word: orbach
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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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...
...remember other musicals by: slick, amiable and derivative. With a plot line borrowed from the Wilder-Diamond film The Apartment and a structure copied from How to Succeed in Business With out Really Trying, the show is not so much viewed as deja vu'd. While Jerry Orbach will probably light up Broadway from this show onwards, his performance is not equal to his acting in Scuba Duba...
...musical's tall, gangling antihero, Chuck Baxter (Jerry Orbach), is an underling at Consolidated Life and looks suspiciously like a poor insurance risk. His arms seem to dangle somewhere close to his knees, and his face bears the gasp-jawed incredulity of a deep-sea diver whose air supply has just been cut off. What makes him mildly appealing is that he confides his utter lack of confidence in self-abasing little asides to the audience. It is hard to think ill of a man who thinks so ill of himself...
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...