![]() However, one might well wonder why Louis Jourdan was ever cast as the leading man. While she plays Daisy, she prances about so wild-eyed that you would concede her mind capable of anything. She overdoes neither, but rather projects two separate characters whose differences extend far beyond their dialects. Her role requires her to shift continually from the aristocratic Melinda to Daisy, the goil from New Joisey. Miss Harris surpasses all the requirements of a musical comedy star and beyond that she can act. There can be little wonder that it should, however, for the budget of this show easily permitted the choreographer a fine stable of nimble legs.īarbara Harris as Daisy Gamble should become the sensation of the year on the New York stage. The sequence by the Publick Trysting Place, in particular, almost explodes with action. Once back in the days of yore, the Rabelasian dance numbers capture the theatre, due partly to the clever choreography of Herbert Ross. The title song gets caught in Louis Jourdan's throat and could profitably be eliminated, but the ballad "Melinda" lingers nicely. We've grown accustomed to the plot.īurton Lane's songs are lighthearted and lyrical, very much in keeping with the strange whimsy of this show. Thus elegant professional man transforms pretty girl from lower to upper class. Mark catches her at the airport where she miraculously reintegrates the various centuries of her personality. ![]() Daisy discovers that Mark has fallen for her 18th century model and runs away in tears of frustration. Meanwhile Mark, the dashing young shrink, falls in love with Daisy as Melinda (the girl has changed her accent, remember?). Soon we have flashed back to the world of manor houses and wide green lawns, and the gayness which ensues virtually welcomes Mr. Sure enough, Daisy turns out to be the reincarnation of one Melinda Moncrief, the daughter of an 18th century parvenu. An imaginative situation for a musical to be sure, but so far we are still in New York City, and everyone knows an Alan Lerner show must somehow trudge back to historical England. While Doolittle went to a bachelor linguist to have her accent repaired, Daisy Gamble goes to a bachelor psychiatrist to cure her "hallucinations." Daisy suffers from extrasensory perception (ESP), which means that she answers telephones before they have a chance to ring. For a flower girl Lerner substitutes a girl who grows flowers. The plot is an updated modification of My Fair Lady. But the show unhappily remains more an entertainment than an experience. The combination of two expect giants leads one to expect the ultimate, and the attempt to floor the audience certainly becomes obvious. Lerner has chosen to collaborate with the veteran composer Burton Lane, whose brilliant score for Finian's Rainbow of 1947 greatly influenced subsequent musical. It takes no ESP to predict that On a Clear Day You Can See Forever will be a solid smash on Broadway, yet also predictably the show will not set off the seismographic tremors that Alan Lerner has created in the past.
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