Gemini the Musical in Variety

Toby Zinman's review of Gemini The Musical appears in a recent issue of Variety. Since the online edition requires a subscription, I've reprinted the text below.

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Charm intact after nearly three decades, long-running Broadway hit "Gemini" reappears as a nostalgia musical, a feel-good family comedy defanged by time. No longer is the gay son's coming-out shocking, no longer is the foul-mouthed neighbor scandalous, but Albert Innaurato's book is still entertaining if not actually moving. Charles Gilbert's score is sometimes tuneful, often thin, paying homage to the '70s; the cast delivers although nobody has the big voice the show needs.

For Philadelphians, South Philly holds pride of place: narrow streets, row houses heavily ornamented with wrought iron and plastic flowers, sensational restaurants, Mummers, cheesesteaks, and the all-purpose, highly enriched "Yo!" (meaning "hello" or "whaddya mean?" or "wait a minute" or "don't park there"). "Gemini: The Musical" evokes all that without falling totally into sitcomsitcom cliche, and Tobin Ost's set suggests the entire Italian neighborhood.

Judith and her brother Randy --"white people" (local parlance for WASP) -- literally jump into the Geminiani life over the backyard fence. Thin, rich and blond, they are Francis' friends from Harvard, surprising him for his 21 birthday. Pudgy, poor and dark, Francis is appalled as he watches his worlds collide; his mortification is complicated by his having had an affair with Judith during spring semester but then discovering that it's her brother he is really attracted to. Jeremiah Downes conveys good-natured astonishment throughout as Randy and Jillian Louis' puzzled disappointment works for Judith.

Barry James only superficially conveys the central character's complexity --a serious composer, an opera devote, a quirky, easily embarrassed still-adolescent. His father, Fran, (Robert Picardo, who played the son in the original production) is best revealed in the song "Concrete" which begins as comic and slides into heartbreak.

The neighbors really carry the show. The slattern next door, Bunny (too attractive, despite hair "the color of hepatitis") is played by Linda Hart, repeating the role from the 1998 revival of "Gemini." Her son, Herschel (Todd Buonopane) is an extreme version of Francis: a maladjusted asthmatic genius whose passion is public transportation (his "Trolley" song is the show's best, a beautifully sung ballad). As Fran's girlfriend, Anne DeSalvo won an Obie for her Lucille in the original, pre-Broadway production and is funny again.

The one addition to the original cast is the ghost of Maria Callas (Anne DeSalvo in a different wig), whose songs all sound like "Phantom of the Opera" in what seems a witty touch if it's intentional.
 
Choreography, Nancy Berman Kantra. Sets, Tobin Ost; lighting, Troy A.Martin-O'Shia; costumes, Andre D. Harrington; sound, Nick Kourtides; casting, Janet Foster; orchestrator, Lars Halle; production stage manager, Scott McNulty. Opened, reviewed Oct. 16, 2004. Running time: 2 HOURS, 25 MIN.