True, Nice Work If You Can Get It (* * * out of four) doesn't use an inane story line to simply string together a beloved band or singer's catalog or a bunch of disparate rock chestnuts. Instead, it uses an unoriginal story line to string together the timeless songs of George and Ira Gershwin.
This distinction shouldn't make Nice Work, which opened Tuesday at the Imperial Theatre, much more encouraging to people who care about keeping musical theater fresh and vital. But director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall and a stellar cast ensure that the show is as charming in execution as it is disheartening in theory.
The plot, set in the Prohibition era, involves a soft-living playboy who, on the weekend that his third marriage is scheduled, falls rather inconveniently for a hard-bitten bootlegger. Matthew Broderick, in his first Broadway musical since The Producers, is the playboy, Jimmy Winter; Kelli O'Hara is the bootlegger, Billie Bendix.
Memphis librettist/co-lyricist Joe DiPietro wrote the book, inspired by material by the late, great wordsmiths Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse (notably the Gershwins' musical Oh, Kay!), thoug h that inspiration is less than steady. For every sharp line, there's one that will make you wince â€" or would have, if it wasn't delivered with such disarming spirit and skill.
Broderick turns Jimmy into the kind of character he does best: a sweetly deadpan social doofus. He also sings breezy tunes such as 'S Wonderful and Do, Do, Do and dances with an appealingly light touch, especially when spinning his leading lady around in a witty second-act sequence.
O'Hara proves once again that there's pretty much nothing she can't do on stage. No matter that the tough but tender Billie can seem quaint; the actress makes her adorable and funny, and as usual sings gorgeously â€" though you may wish they had relaxed the tempo a bit on Someone To Watch Over Me or But Not For Me, and let that sumptuous soprano linger more.
Granted, a slower pace might not have suited the proceeding s, which Marshall guides with the same giddy panache that distinguished her revivals of Anything Goes and The Pajama Game. One clever, frothy production number is a bath scene in which "bubble boys and girls" artfully wrap Jennifer Laura Thompson, as Jimmy's obnoxious fiancée, in an enormous towel. In another, the excellent Judy Kaye, playing a smug Prohibition advocate, sips spiked lemonade and gets flamboyantly frisky.
Other standout performers include Michael McGrath, as a cohort of Billie's who goes undercover as the world's most reluctant butler; and Estelle Parsons, in a brief but priceless turn as Jimmy's domineering yet surprisingly free-thinking mom.
In a season with few substantial new musicals, Nice Work's empty calories are a forgivable indulgence. So dig in â€" resistance is futile.
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