In this revival of The Apple Tree, supervised by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, Joanna Glushak's dazzling transformation in a twitch of her dusty broom from Ella, the grimy bedraggled chimney sweep to Passionella, the blond Hollywood movie star with a voluminous bosom, makes the journey to East Haddam a priority. With a long, oval-shaped face surrounded by a mop of curls, pronounced jaw and saucer eyes, this comedienne extraordinaire, while combining the comic talent of Carol Burnett and the singing prowess of Bernadette Peters, brings her own original stamp to this role, milking the satiric number, "Oh, To Be a Movie Star," for all it is worth. In 1966, several years after lyricist Harnick and composer Bock created what may be the greatest musical ever written, Fiddler on the Roof, they brought to Broadway a very different project. The Goodspeed Opera House is presenting that collaboration, The Apple Tree, which instead of relying on a seamless book is a series of three distinctly different one-act plays based on entirely different themes, performed by the same actors. The creators have reinstated the song, "Talkin' Truth, which was not used in the first production.
This production is blessed with three fine principals, Glushak, John Scherer, a personable Adam and Elvis impersonator; and Kevin Ligon, sizzling in black as snake and devil. The entire ensemble meet their extensive challenges with effusive energy, splendid direction and choreography by Ted Pappas, and vibrant and varied costumes by David C. Wollard. However, it is only Part III, "Passionella," based on a Jules Feiffer cartoon, that rises above the mundane. Set in the Garden of Eden, Part I, The Diary of Adam and Eve, based on a Mark Twain piece, an exploration of the innermost thoughts of the first two people on earth, is piquant and often charming, but its simplistic childlike qualities overwhelm the piece.
Part II, Frank R. Stockton's The Lady or the Tiger?, is set in an Egyptian fantasyland in which kings, slaves and harem-girls vie for attention. For all its hysteria, it gives off little heat. The problem is that the three stories really don't relate to each other (apart from the apple's appeal), and so the musical, as in many television "specials," doesn't hold together as a completely satisfying event. Mystery of mysteries! Written by the same two people who conceived the wonderful scores for Fiorello, She Loves Me and Fiddler, this musical possesses songs that are serviceable, but not one that is memorable. Never mind. Long after the music dies, we'll remember Joanna Glushak running frantically up and down the stairs to her chimney.
