Photo Source: Joan Marcus
What's more, that last effort was proof of the dangers of resuscitating a star vehicle, particularly one glove-fittingly designed for such an idiosyncratic persona as Holliday's. Director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall's genial work doesn't solve the Holliday problem here, though, surprisingly, Kelli O'Hara, known for ingénue roles, is much more successful than Prince as Ella. Ultimately, this "Bells" is a pleasant-enough serving of a rather ramshackle yet endearing Jule Styne–Betty Comden–Adolph Green mid-career musical comedy.
The simple story has Ella working as an operator for Susanswerphone, a telephone message service. The big-hearted young woman gets involved in her clients' lives, creating characters for each of their needs. To playboy playwright Jeffrey Moss, she is "Mom," a quavering-voiced older lady who dispenses equal parts advice and sympathy. When it looks like Jeff is going to self-indulgently sabotage his career, Ella springs out from behind her switchboard and into his life, under the nom de plume of Melisande Scott. They fall in love, of course, and all ends happily once the subterfuge is finally revealed. Surrounding the slight tale are a number of outlandish comic types, something Comden and Green specialized in, including a wannabe-Brando actor; a dentist who composes pop songs on his air hose; a faux–Mittel European con man with the improbable name of J. Sandor Prantz who plots to use Susanswerphone as the front for a bookie racket; the daffy Sue, Ella's cousin, who runs the service and is the self-deluding object of the con man's "affections" and an incompetent police inspector who's blind to the betting but convinced that Susanswerphone is a front for a brothel.
O'Hara begins at too low a level. Ella's opening scene, in which we meet all her characters, isn't sharp enough. Her first number, the excellent "It's a Perfect Relationship," in which Ella pines for Jeff, is more sweet than funny, though it should be equal parts both. But once O'Hara lets herself go in Ella's Brando impersonation, something opens up, and the performance becomes a much more successful mix of emotional truth and giddy comic style. She's a joy in the ballads, of course, offering a melting "The Party's Over" and joining Will Chase's sexy and well-sung Jeff for the glorious "Long Before I Knew You," but she also delivers a delightfully sassy "Mu-Cha-Cha" and a knockout "I'm Goin' Back," one of the great 11 o'clock star numbers ever. Chase and O'Hara also exhibit considerable sexual chemistry and charming terpsichorean talents in the classic "Just in Time." By show's end, you're convinced that O'Hara could pull off an Ella to rival Holliday's in a proper production with full rehearsal.
Supporting standouts include Bobby Cannavale's needy actor and Brad Oscar's manic dentist, but only David Pittu, as Sandor, understands in his bones the eccentric comic style the material requires. Judy Kaye is a performer of many gifts, but daffiness isn't in her soul, and her Sue is too earthbound. We never believe this transparent con man could con her. As a result, the delicious "Salzburg," a comic gem of desperate seduction, never quite flies.
I hate to sound like a broken record, but once again adapter David Ives' careless approach to character is cause for damage. His elimination of Ella's co-worker, Gwynne, forces a situation in which Ella leaves her cousin's business unmanned, something she would never do and which fundamentally alters who she is. Ives also mangles the setup for "Is It a Crime?": Maintaining the detective's antagonism to Ella makes it impossible for the song to succeed in reducing him to sentimental tears, which is how Ella escapes him. The comedy didn't land, but that's Ives' doing, not O'Hara's.
Marshall's choreography too often lacks invention, but Rob Berman and the Encores! orchestra make Robert Russell Bennett's glorious orchestrations sound swell. Martin Pakledinaz's '50s costumes add a tangy touch of period style.
In the Encores! canon, "Bells" falls midway between the dull "Girl Crazy" and the electric "Anyone Can Whistle." The evening's principal joy comes from watching O'Hara, one of our finest musical theater actors, continue to expand her already considerable range.
Presented by Encores! at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th St., NYC. Nov. 18–20. Thu. and Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 and 8 p.m.; Sun., 6:30 p.m. (212) 581-1212 or www.nycitycenter.org . Casting by Jay Binder.