June 28, 2005

Act I of 'Martha!' gets a reading, seeks financing

About 70 people crammed into an upstairs room at The Producers Club on Monday night ready to hear a cast of Broadway hopefuls dissect, julienne, and roast the likeness of the perfectionist homemaker CEO who went to jail.

And while they got that – in bouncy songs such as "The Ice Princess" and references to her "massive ego and incredible unfairness" – they also got a slice of the feminist/anti-feminist dichotomy of what it takes for a woman to succeed in a man’s world, and what it means to come to something when you start from nothing. (Nothing, in this case, is New Jersey.)

There are a lot of good things in "Martha! The Unauthorized Musical." The songs take pot shots at Enron executives, the SEC, New Jersey, Connecticut and a number of races and religions. In an ode to the Metro North commuter train that takes Martha from Manhattan to Connecticut, the chorus tips a hat to the opening number of "The Music Man" in creating an onomatopoeia of the train. But this time to the sounds of "Martha! Westport! Martha! Westport! Ahhhhhh."

In a Jersey flashback, Martha adopts her native accent and sings the lines – which rhyme here – "What do you expect/when you live in Teaneck?"

The musical is high camp, even when Nancy Green, the ex-slave who became the iconic Aunt Jemima of pancake-mix fame, comes to visit Martha in her sleep and sings her a pep talk.

"Nice girls finish last," Nancy Green sings to Martha, warning her with examples of women who got shafted when corporate men took over their ideas. "What you need is a pair of brass balls" and even "let ‘em use the c-word."

Martha can be a petty bitch, but she’s a fighter and a sympathetic character.

"From Day 1 people just made fun of her. People forget what it's like to go up against so many people who don’t want you to succeed," John Ekizian, the co-librettist and lyricist of Martha!, said in an interview after the performance. "I think she’s been so marginalized by people. She’s a huge talent. When you watch her shows over and over. ..." And that’s just it. This is a guy who does watch her shows over and over.

Monday’s 80-minute performance was technically a reading, with nine actors sitting in a semicircle on a riser, reading their lines from music stands. They had a pianist to help them along, but nothing in the way of props or costumes. Though Actress Sally Wilfert, reading the role of Martha Blake, wore a Tiffany’s-blue blouse, and got one of the biggest laughs of the night when she nearly got her own name wrong, singing "Martha Stew- ... Martha Blake."

"That was a total slipup. But it was funny, wasn’t it," James-Allen Ford, the show’s composer and co-librettist, said after the show.

Indeed the show isn’t technically about Martha Stewart. Asked if the real Martha knows about the musical, Ford referred to the "no comment" the Post got from the Stewart camp in a story about the play. However, someone from her show was in the audience Monday night, Ford said.

They actors only did Act I, as Act II hasn’t been written yet. Ford and Ekizian hope to finish it this summer and run another reading in fall. Like Monday’s event, it’s meant to entice investors. About $200,000 could get them Off-Broadway, though in a perfect world, they’re hoping to find a few million and open on Broadway next summer. And "Martha!" is all about clawing your way toward the perfect world.

Earlier: 'Martha! The Unauthorized Musical' in development

June 28, 2005 09:26 AM in Broadway

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