A jewel in the crown
Little-known story of crusading mayor sparkles

Daily Herald
BY Barbara Vitello
Daily Herald Staff Writer
May 11, 2006

Mention LaGuardia, most people think of the New York airport.

Mention "Fiorello!" most people respond with a blank stare.

No surprise there. Not many know the 1959 Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick musical about crusading mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, the 5-foot firebrand who took on the powerful and corrupt Tammany Hall machine that dominated New York City politics from the mid-19th to the early 20th century.

It ran almost two years on Broadway, earned Tony Awards and Pulitzer Prizes for composer Bock, lyricist Harnick and writers Jerome Weidman and George Abbott. But "Fiorello!" yielded no hit songs and faded into relative obscurity. Rarely produced, it has never had a Broadway revival. (The closest it came was a semi-staged version in 1994 as part of "Encores," New York City's showcase of musicals in concert form).

"Fiorello!" - in an affectionate, wonderfully intimate revival at Chicago's TimeLine Theatre - may not be the most precious jewel in the Bock-Harnick crown. (1964's "Fiddler on the Roof" claims that title). But it's a gem nonetheless.

An engaging salute to immigrants and activists, it has a scrappy, righteously indignant protagonist and radiates old-fashioned charm. The straightforward score features spirited odes to power brokering (in "Politics and Poker" insiders play for "pot that's mediocre") and corruption ("Little Tin Box," where those same insiders mock their indicted counterparts' claim their riches resulted from their wives' frugal ways). The book amuses, especially well-placed offhand asides like the political rival who responds to the suggestion that LaGuardia might step in front of a truck saying "I don't know, he's awful fast on his feet."

Director Nick Bowling understands nuance has a place in musical comedy like it does in drama. In the lilting "Till Tomorrow," the lush waltz that sends Fiorello and other soldiers off to war at the end of Act I, the chorus drops out leaving Rebecca Finnegan (the fine singing actress who plays Fiorello's secretary Marie) with a poignant solo not in the score originally. Credit for that moment, which so eloquently captures Marie's longing, belongs to Bowling. Talk about savvy direction.

Add Doug Peck's music direction, Kevin Hagan's striking set evoking NYC tenements, Keith Parham's dim lighting suggesting the smoky backrooms where dealmakers operate and you have a production that sounds as good as it looks.

The impressive cast includes an especially robust male chorus whose "Politics and Poker," "The Bum Won" and "Little Tin Box" make for some of the show's most entertaining moments. Michael Kingston delivers a nicely deadpan comic turn as pragmatic Morris, one of Fiorello's long-suffering partners, and Terry Hamilton is perfect as Ben, the street-smart, cigar-chomping campaign manager.

The women are just as good. Besides the aforementioned Finnegan, there's Cassie Wooley (as Fiorello's first wife Thea), wrapping her lovely voice around the signature ballad "When Did I Fall?"

With her seductive, shoulder-rolling, hip-shaking version of "Gentleman Jimmy," blues belter Bethany Thomas makes you forget this superfluous song adds nothing to the narrative. And the spunky Maris Hudson infuses the catchy "I Love a Cop" with blue-collar sass.

But it's the charismatic PJ Powers as the feisty LaGuardia - lawyer turned congressman who served his country as a pilot in WWI and his city as mayor from 1934 to 1946 - who dominates the show.

Rocking back on his heels, his chest out and his hands on his hips or leaning forward his brow furrowed and expression pinched, Powers exudes passion as a Republican David to the Democratic machine's Goliath. Yet he grounds the larger-than-life character, revealing the impudence and arrogance that are as much a part of the man as his compassion and idealism.