CARMELINA
Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner Music by Burton Lane Choreography by Peter Gennaro
Every so often, watching a Broadway show is like going on an archaeological dig. Unfortunately, these dramatic tombs contain no King Tut treasures. They are stacked with dusty relics that a museum curator might choose to label Homo theatralis, extinct since some time in the early '50s.
Musicals date even faster than plays, and if one pilfers the formulas of the past, as the fashioners of Carmelina have, one has to be lucky enough to find a fossil audience to match. Based on the 1968 film Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,...