Its songs may not be John Kander and Fred Ebb at their Cabaret-Chicago best, and its wisp of a book may give them little to write memorably about, but there’s no denying the exuberance of a cast made up almost entirely of performers anywhere from 50something to 93 years young in The Group Rep’s intimate revival of the 1971 Broadway flop 70, Girls, 70.

Taking place in and around a dilapidated New York City hotel for seniors called the Sussex Arms, 70, Girls, 70 has the appropriately 70-or-so Ida Dodd (Barbara Minkus) leading her fellow golden-agers in a series of fur heists in hopes of accumulating enough cash to rescue their retirement home from greedy developers whose plans most certainly do not include allowing its current tenants to stick around till death do them part.

And that’s about it.

No wonder then, that 70, Girls, 70 often seems more like a revue than a book-propelled musical. (Indeed, the show’s best-known “hit,” “Coffee In A Cardboard Cup,” feels no more integral to plot advancement here than it does in the plot-free The World Goes Round, an oft-revived collection of unrelated, mostly lesser-known Kander & Ebb gems.)

The residents stare at a broken TV set and imagine they’re watching their favorite shows in “You And I, Love,” and in “Do We?” they inform the audience how frisky they still can get in bed.

Eldest resident Gert (Fay DeWitt) recounts the tale of a reformed crook named Emma Finch in “See The Light.” 20something Eddie (Danica Waitley), who works at the Sussex Arms, reminds the audience to “Go Visit” their grandparents. Ida asks the life-or-death question “Where Does An Elephant Go?” when it kicks the bucket.

And “Boom Ditty Boom” has the cast boom-ditty-booming as furs get passed from thief to thief like buckets of water in a fire brigade.

No wonder then that with so little to grab an audience’s attention the way a murder trial does in Chicago or a couple of doomed love affairs do in Cabaret, 70, Girls, 70 closed on Broadway just one month to the day after its 1971 Opening Night.

To his credit, ace director Bruce Kimmel has (with the permission of the still alive-and-kicking-at-96 Kander) tweaked the show’s book (already revised by David Thompson and Norman L. Martin from Ebb and Martin’s original) but even new-and-improved, it still doesn’t provide an audience with enough meat to have us invested in these characters’ lives or to give the musical bona fide stakes.

And yet despite all these caveats, I very much enjoyed the latest from The Group Rep, perhaps because there is something truly joyous and inspiring about seeing performers with centuries of life experiences and thousands of stage and screen credits among them proving that (despite some fluffed lines and lyrics), they’ve still got it.

Minkus makes for the zestiest of Idas, Regan Carrington and Judy Nazemetz are the bubbliest of big-belting diner waitresses, and married couples don’t get any more charming than the McIllehennys (Dawn Halloran and Rob Schaumann), or not-yet-married couples any friskier than Lloyd Pedersen’s Walter and Cynthia Payo’s Eunice.

Doug Haverty’s Harry stops the show with his rapid-fire description of “The Caper,” Waitley is a hippy-dippy delight as Eddie, and Cynthia Bryant, Hisato Masuyama, Leota Rhodes, and Sara Shearer each has his or her own moments to shine.

Most memorable of all is the fabulous DeWitt, who proves throughout the show (and never more so than when she brings down the house with “See The Light”) that age is just a number, even when that number is 93.

Music director Carol Weiss (as Lorraine) tickles the ivories like nobody’s business, accompanied by Tim Christensen on bass and Thomas Silcott on drums in song after song after song.

Kudos too to Kimmel and Kay Cole for their lively musical staging and to Cheryl Baxter, who gives Cardboard Coffee Cups Masuyama and Waitley a tap number to do Eleanor Powell or Ann Miller proud.

Will Maizel’s snazzy scenic design, Nick Foran’s flashy lighting, Michael Mullen’s nostalgic 1970s polyester wear are all topnotch, those not all cast members get equal amplification by an uncredited sound designer.

70, Girls, 70 is produced by Haverty and Suzy London. Cassidy LeClair is stage manager. Nora Feldman is publicist.

70, Girls, 70 The Musical may remain as problematic in 2023 as it was in 1971, but at the very least, it serves as a showcase for largely underrepresented talent of a certain age, and for that alone, it’s something that you might want to check out at The Group Rep, no matter how young or old you are.

The Group Rep, Lonny Chapman Theatre, 10900 Burbank Boulevard, North Hollywood.
www.thegrouprep.com

–Steven Stanley
November 12, 2023
Photos: Doug Engalla

Tags: David Thompson, Fred Ebb, John Kander, Los Angeles Theater Review, Norman L. Martin, The Group Rep