If the last time you saw The Unsinkable Molly Brown was in, oh, the Eighties, don’t think the current production at the Muny is the same old same old. It was frequently done there from the Sixties through the Eighties, but here, with the permission of the estate of Meredith Willson (Music Man), Broadway writer Dick Scanlan has created a new version.
The story has been changed, to make a more historically accurate version. Other Willson songs, some unheard before, have been used in addition to many of the original ones. (Don’t fret; “I Ain’t Down Yet” is still in.) Scanlan has also added some new lyrics
Beth Malone is Molly, the tomboy-ish, plain-spoken, dirt-poor girl from Hannibal who comes to Colorado in search of a better life. It’s a triumphant performance, swaggering and cajoling and taking charge of her own life. And she sounds great. J.J. Brown, the miner she marries as they struggle and who ends up rich, is played by Marc Kudisch, who did the role with Sutton Foster as the new version was being created. He’s quite splendid, warm despite some bluster, extremely believable. It’s a very large ensemble that works very smoothly, but a little extra credit to Whitney Bashor, as Julia, who becomes Molly’s first friend, to the three miners who are buddies of J.J., Justin Guarini, Paolo Montalban and David Abeles, and to Donna English, who plays Baby Doe Tabor, a woman whose real-life story was almost as dramatic as Molly Brown’s.
It was terribly hot opening night. Folks who left at the intermission, though, got shortchanged. The new Unsinkable turns out to be one of those rare musicals whose second act is better than the first. The first is the rags-to-riches part of the Browns’ life, feeling vaguely like a miners’ version of Oklahoma! It just lacks much pizaaz beyond Molly’s well-known signature song. But the second act, when Molly shows herself to be concerned not only with making headway with Denver’s upper crust but with the lower spectrum of society, those who struggle as she once had. It changes the feeling of the show considerably, as Molly attempts to be true to herself, yet keep a turn-of-the-century marriage healthy. She was ahead of her time in many ways, women’s suffrage, animal shelters, juvenile justice and even an episode of immigration enforcement as she landed after the Titanic sinking. (The latter brought scattered applause from the audience.)
Kathleen Marshall, who’s worked with this version of Unsinkable from early on, directed and did the choreography. It was another opening night with mic problems, this time with various performers throughout the evening, always brief, thankfully, but persistent. Paul Tazewell’s costumes, from tattered to elaborate, contributed considerably. Derek McLane and Paul Tate dePoo III’s scenic design, too, ranges from a mine (harder than one would think, I suspect) to a lovely rendering of Paris. Lots of wig work for Leah J. Loukas.
And one last thing as we slog through a St. Louis July: A(nother) standing ovation for those wonderful people who banded together to buy the Muny the silent fans which make such a difference in this torrid weather. We are grateful.
The Unsinkable Molly Brown
through July 27
The Muny
Forest Park
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