Chita Rivera and George Hearn star in The Visit
By Terrence McNally; songs by John Kander and Fred Ebb
The best musical of the year wasn't to be found at last week's Tony awards. It is wrapping up a month-long run in the Washington, D.C., suburbs: a haunting musical adaptation of The Visit, the 1956 Friedrich Durrenmatt play about a Swiss town presented with a devil's bargain by a former resident, the world's richest woman. A bunch of old Broadway hands — songwriters Kander and Ebb, book writer McNally, star Chita Rivera — seem totally possessed by the spirit of this dark, postwar parable, and they prove that the old-style Broadway musical (melodic songs, a story that doesn't stoop to camp) can display intriguing new colors.
Grade: A-