Oh, too bad, hey... I was hoping for a hit....

After 50 years, the musical 'Bye Bye Birdie' got a revival on Broadway.

And the critic of the New York Times just ripped it apart, unfortunately. Tja... you can find it HERE.

Tja, when I read about it beforehand, it brought back some fond memories. I'd only seen it on film, and I was about sixteen. (Back then, they milked the productions and the tours so that a film version came fairly well later than the original production.) So I was wishing the production good luck, because in our star-crazed culture, (world-wide), I think it would be easy to bring it up to something very good indeed.

For those of you young people who have never heard of it... it was about the Elvis Presley craze and a send up of his being drafted into the Army. The musical has a similar main character, and the premise is that 'Conrad Birdie' is gonna find a young girl in the US before he goes to basic training, and give her a symbolic kiss which will be for all the young girls in America. On the Ed Sullivan show, of course. I can't remember how, but the young girl chosen lives in a burgh in Ohio, and the musical is about how all hell breaks loose in her family when she gets chosen.... from 'Sweet Apple, Ohio'. Yup.....

The film had an all-star cast, and Dick van Dyke and Chita Rivera had been in the original production. But there was also the crazy Paul Lynde, and I 'think' Maureen Stapleton as a domineering mother in a mink coat and sneakers that kept squeaking on linoleum floors in hallways as if she were on a basketball court. I could be wrong about the latter lady, but will soon find out. Yes, Wikipedia just confirmed that for me. She had me on the floor, laughing.

But what the hell, I was about sixteen, and you find lots of things funny at that age, so go figure.

The fun thing was about where I saw it... and only once, mind you. It was on an Air Force base, in their movie theater, and I was doing a two-week exercise for the Civil Air Patrol. As above, was only sixteen or so....

So all the regular soldiers were in there, the credits rolled up, and there was Ann Margaret shaking her boobs at the camera for the title song, and the service people went nuts, I tell you, nuts. I thought it was kinda crass.

(That should have told me something...)

Whatever.... I will leave you with a fun story about my mother. When the real Elvis first appeared... on the Ed Sullivan show... we were at my paternal grandparents house, there were screaming girls in the audience, (and yeah, I think it was live), and he sang 'Hound Dog', with the twisting pelvis... oooo...

After the number, everyone in the room was in shocked silence. A long silence. And my mother said, 'Well, he'll never last...'

Later, at the end of the Sixties, I come home from my college seminars, and find her dusting, and singing along to 'In the Ghetto'. Which surprised me. So I said, 'I thought you didn't like Elvis.' And she got all indignant, and said, 'Are you kidding?' Those were the days!'

So when I see these fads come along, and the adulation, well, I often think of that, although I believe that Frank Sinatra was the first one to drive his female public absolutely nuts. As far as I know....

Not having seen the current production, I really cannot tell if the review is justified or not. But I do think, if it were handled correctly, it might have gone gold. Whatever, I found a really cheap deal on the movie on Amazon last night, and thought, what the hell, take another look. We shall see. Oh yes, and the music? Nice, if sometimes a little sappy, as I remember...

It will be interesting to see how it does at the box-office now on Broadway....