First Nighter: “Paint Your Wagon” Revival Paints Town Red-Hot
Although reviews are expected to be as objective as possible in a somewhat paradoxically subjective way, don’t wait for the following assessment of Paint Your Wagon, playing this weekend in the New York City Center Encores! series, to stick to that demand.
The reason for the, uh, lapse? The Alan Jay Lerner-Frederick Loewe musical was the second production I saw on Broadway. The first, caught the night before, was South Pacific. Some weekend, no? With those two as an introduction to The Great White Way—an emphasis on the “Great”—I thought that’s what my New York City theatergoing was going to be from then on. Is it any wonder that I’ve often joked it’s been downhill ever since?
