Stephen Sondheim has written hits, misses, and succes d'estime. By his own account, he has only one "Why?" musical to his credit. That would be Do I Hear a Waltz?, a 1964 musical that had everything going for it except a genuine reason for existing in the first place. It was a condition that led to largely passionless results, but not necessarily unpleasant ones.
The pleasant is certainly present in 42nd Street Moon's revival of the musical at the Eureka Theatre, a production that is also able to locate veins of passion thanks to Broadway veteran Emily Skinner's estimable embrace of a not-always-lovable central character. Leona Samish is a woman with a distrust of happiness, a tourist in Venice who sings in her opening number that the beauty of the city was conjured just to make her cry.
Do I Hear a Waltz? was composer Richard Rodgers' first collaboration with another lyricist following the death of Oscar Hammerstein II. Sondheim took the job, reluctantly because of his own determination to be recognized as a composer as well as a lyricist, and found in Rodgers not so much a collaborator as a commandant whose status as Broadway royalty was enhanced by the fact that he was also the show's producer and final artistic arbiter.
In the musical, adapted by Arthur Laurents from his play The Time of the Cuckoo, Leona travels with her own martini shaker as a lure to keep fellow travelers from leaving her behind at the hotel. But leave they do, and on one of Leona's solo meanderings around Venice, she is easily wooed by a sweet-talking shopkeeper who, one suspects, has been down this canal before. When she finally hears the internal waltz she has long pined for, we also suspect that the music cannot last.
Skinner hits all the right notes as Leona, creating a character who both pushes and pulls at our sympathies. Unlike her character, Skinner finds easy rapport with her onstage colleagues and pitches her performance at a level that doesn't overpower the cast of varying professional experience. Director Greg MacKellan has smoothly assembled the scaled-down pieces that also include Dave Dobrosky's musical direction and Brittany Danielle's low-key choreography.
One might wish for a more robust vocal delivery from a too-young but suitably suave Tyler McKenna as Leona's love interest. Michael Rhone, Lucinda Hitchcock Cone, David Naughton, and Abby Samons adeptly play fellow tourists, with the latter two getting a little more dramatic meat on their bones as a couple with its own mini-drama. Stephanie Rhoads brings expansive warmth to the role of the innkeeper, and Taylor Bartolucci adds a comic touch as an English-challenged servant. Jonah Broscow is an appealing youngster with a confident hold on his role as Leona's informal guide to Venice.
It was rough sailing for the creators of Do I Hear a Waltz?, but the choppy waters are not apparent 50 years later. If this gondola is not sailing down the Grand Canal, it is at least aright in an inviting tributary.
Do I Hear a Waltz? will run through Oct. 19 at the Eureka Theatre. Tickets are $25- $75. Call 255-8207 or go to 42ndstmoon.org.