Gilger, whose show was a hit in San Francisco a decade ago, has arranged 41 songs into neat packages that flow together without slighting any individual piece. In this slick new revival the formula clicks again, delivered by six polished and likable performers. The brassy show tunes of Jerry Herman produce a reflex reaction. This revised version of the 1985 Herman revue at the Alcazar Theater climbs on the bandwagon with a zealous first act. You come away after two hours with all those Herman tunes in your head, still craving more.
Love struggles to endure.
Those are the implicit maxims, sometimes expressed and sometimes not, in so many of Herman's songs. A magnificently staged musical revue featuring 45 showtunes from the nine shows by Jerry Herman, opened over the weekend at the Alcazar Theater. The current, much grander production at the Alcazar retains, and enhances the charm, vitality and class of Herman's songs by grouping them into 14 fast-moving theme scenes. Sung, danced and acted out by six superb performers - the presentation is entertaining, enlightening, enthralling, and memorable. Listening to an evening of Jerry Herman's music, much of it in march tempo full of oompah rhythms and ascending chord changes that build into soaring anthems, you can't stop humming, and you can't dent his song's infectious charms.