Word: sweete
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...decidedly uneven show to which Lithgow lends his gifts is The Sweet Smell of Success, a musical adapted from the cult favorite film of the same title. Its protagonist, Sidney Falco (assayed by Tony Curtis on film and the up-and-coming Brian D’arcy James onstage) is a youngster consumed with a lust for power. Much like Leo Bloom in The Producers, he wants everything he’s ever seen in the movies. His key to the bright lights is the most powerful gossip columnist in the country, a vicious, preening Walter Winchel-like monster named...
...insidious music aside, Sweet Smell remains an often entrancing depiction of a man’s descent into indulgent luxury and moral bankruptcy. A number of remarkable scenes have been constructed, including a chilling midnight meeting between J.J. and Sidney at St. Patrick’s Cathedral that reveals the terrifyingly fierce will of the famed gossip columnist...
...existence of these well-constructed elements that makes the show’s shortcomings so damnably frustrating. In a musical, there are moments which just have to happen: the ingenues’ ballad, the hero’s declaration, the ignored second banana’s moment to shine. Sweet Smell has those moments, but that’s all that occurs—they just happen. The lovebirds sing one insipid tune after another…well, actually, just a couple between them, but each with at least one ill-advised reprise. Sidney’s big moment...
...Sweet Smell of Success concludes with one of the most satisfying final sequences in recent memory. If James never quite has the realization necessary for his finale, Lithgow finishes strongly enough for both of them. Embracing this “dirty little town” to the upmost, his confidence makes us forget the score’s faults and his own vocal weaknesses. In the end, I suppose that’s why he’s the one prominently on the posters and the billboards and with his name above the title. He delivers as only a true...
...Sweet Smell of Success...