Flaherty: My Favorite Year

Lincoln Center Theatre's first original musical had a score by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, who were fresh from their success with Once On This Island. There are some fine moments - especially the epic opening "Twenty Million People." This melodious and witty number introduces us to the insane world of a network comedy show and the major players in the lead character's life. Musical theatre exposition at its best, this is a pre-echo of what the same team would do in Ragtime a few years later. The rest of My Favorite Year's score is not nearly as breathtaking, but it has some good moments.

Evan Pappas is perfect as a young TV gag writer who finds himself chaperoning a broken-down movie star he once idolized. Tim Curry tries his damnedest as a thinly veiled parody of the aging Errol Flynn. Lanie Kazan is hilarious as the writer's overwhelming Jewish mother (at her best in the amusing "Welcome to Brooklyn"), and Andrea Martin steals the show as one of the gag writers. If you are adventurous, this CD is worth having just for the super opening number. Amateur theatre groups with a solid cast of comic actors might make this show tick.(Musical101)