Rethinking Pal Joey

Abstract Critics were by no means immune to the hegemony of the integrated musical as exemplified by Rodgers and Hammerstein. New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson’s response to Rodgers and Hart revivals in the wake of the Rodgers and Hammerstein era provides a particularly striking example of a marked attitudinal shift. When reviewing the premiere of On Your Toes in 1936 Atkinson praised the “sophisticated” book as well as the songs. Eighteen years later, he found the book “labored, mechanical and verbose;’ and only a few songs and the final fifteen to twenty minutes of the story remained fresh. On the other hand, Pa/ joey, the musical Atkinson described as a “foul well” when he reviewed the premiere twelve years earlier (reprinted in Part 1)because the show had the courage to depict odious characters and unsavory situations-was now deemed a worthy precursor of the Rodgers and Hammerstein ideal, “a pioneer in the moving back of musical frontiers” with its “integrated story” and “knowing point of view: As an augury of a Happy New Year, the town has inherited a brilliant production of Pal Joey, which opened at the Broadhurst last evening. This is the Rodgers and Hart musical play for which John O’Hara wrote the book in 1940, and strictly speaking, the new production is a revival.