By Harry Forbes
Veteran songwriters David Shire (music) and Richard Maltby Jr. (lyrics)—collaborators for an astonishing 71 years—return to their most congenial form, the musical revue, with About Time. The show follows Starting Here, Starting Now (1977) and Closer Than Ever (1989), completing what now stands as a distinguished trilogy.
The earlier revues traced the arc of adult life: the first reveling in youthful romance, the second probing the complications of maturity. As its title suggests, About Time turns its gaze toward later chapters—memory, retrospection, and, inevitably, aging. Yet for all its poignancy, the duo’s wry, clear-eyed humor about human frailty remains firmly intact. As ever, Maltby and Shire prove themselves deft miniaturists, crafting songs that play like fully realized playlets.
In keeping with their earlier ensembles, an exemplary cast—keenly attuned to the Maltby-Shire sensibility—delivers these gems with polish and precision: Allyson Kaye Daniel, Darius de Haas, Daniel Jenkins, Eddie Korbich, Sally Wilfert, and, returning from Closer Than Ever, Lynne Wintersteller. Though the revue has no overarching narrative, each performer fluidly inhabits a range of characters, shifting tone and persona with impressive ease.
Following Korbich’s jaunty title number, which neatly frames the evening’s themes, the highlights unfold as a series of sharply etched vignettes: Jenkins on creeping forgetfulness; Wilfert recalling a childhood first love; Wintersteller revisiting a long-ago illicit affair; and Daniel and de Haas capturing the giddy romance of falling in love at the movies.
Jenkins’s “Smart People” offers a sly catalog of Jewish identity markers without ever naming them outright, while the women gleefully embrace double entendre in the bawdy “Over Ripe Fruit.” Korbich’s “Kensington Kenny,” an English music hall pastiche with a gender-bending twist, feels somewhat imported from another show, even with some added contemporary resonance—but it’s executed with such flair that objections quickly fade.
Among the more reflective numbers, Daniel brings touching restraint to a song about leaving her lifelong home for assisted living, and Jenkins’s “I Like Jazz,” a valentine to analog record collecting, is buoyed by a supple onstage riff from musical director and arranger Deniz Cordell, who, along with Annie Pasqua, provides lively two-piano accompaniment throughout. Scott Chaurette offers further support on bass. Not all the material lands as cleanly: de Haas’s “What Do I Tell the Children?”—addressing today’s political malaise—tips into didacticism despite a committed performance. Both it and “Kensington Kenny” appear in a somewhat less cohesive but still enjoyable second act.
Maltby’s direction is, as expected, definitive, complemented by seamless musical staging and choreography from Marcia Milgrom Dodge. The production design is understated but effective: a simple set by scenic consultant James Morgan, anchored by a couch and a door; unobtrusive, well-judged costumes by Tracy Christensen; and sensitive lighting by Mitchell Fenton.
Originally developed and produced by Goodspeed Musicals, About Time stands as a graceful, often moving capstone to a remarkable collaborative legacy—one that continues to find fresh meaning in life’s later passages.
(Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater, 10 West 64 Street; www.abouttimemusical.com; through April 5)
Photo by Julieta Cervantes: (l.-r.) Daniel Jenkins, Allyson Kaye Daniel, Eddie Korbich, Sally Wilfert, Darius de Haas, Lynne Wintersteller.
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