By Paul Horsley

Even during his lifetime, Leonard Bernstein delighted in being a sort of Great American Conundrum. Known as a “triple threat” in his youth, the pianist-conductor-composer made a mark on history as the first American-born conductor of the New York Philharmonic, and later as a serious composer of symphonies, concertos, choral and chamber music and operas. But even before his appointment to the Philharmonic in 1945 Bernstein had begun writing for Broadway, and the same tension between popular and classical that made him so controversial then continues to fascinate us 70 years later. “He was a man of music, every molecule in his body had a musical note in it,” says George Harter, scholar of musical theater and national radio personality. “He didn’t make a distinction between high music for the concert hall and low music for the musical theater. Music, for him, was either good or it was bad.”

From now through April 13th at the Off Center Theatre, the Musical Theater Heritage that George founded in 1998 presents “Bernstein’s Broadway,” a concert presentation of songs and ensembles from the composer’s musicals On the Town (1944), Wonderful Town (1953), West Side Story (1957) and Candide (1958). It’s a repeat of a production MHT created in 2008, which at the time didn’t reach all the audiences the company hoped it would. “When (artistic director) Sarah Crawford and I looked over it, we were delighted to find that it had pretty much ‘stayed written,’ ” George says with a laugh.

The seeds for Bernstein’s Broadway successes were planted with the ballet Fancy Free, which Jerome Robbins created in 1944 to Bernstein’s music. “Bernstein felt that that expression deserved more than just a dance treatment,” George says, “and he sought out some lyric writers to write a story of what these sailors were doing when they were in New York.” Enter Betty Comden and Adolph Green, two Bernstein friends who had a comedy act but aspired to appear on Broadway. “He asked them if they would write the story and lyrics, and they said yes they would if they could have parts in the show.” Thus was born On the Town, a hit on Broadway that was later made into a film (though with largely new songs). It’s stocked with “kind of novelty songs,” George says, “but between them you have music that defined Broadway music for the first time in symphonic terms.” Bernstein was the first “outsider” to look in at the American musical and see “that it had the potential to tell a story in a particular way, and with a particular kind of musical language.”

“Before On the Town all musical theater—including the contributions from the Gershwin brothers—came from the Tin Pan Alley tradition, the commercial publishing popular-music industry. Back then that was American popular music … Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, Hammerstein, Jerome Kern, the Gershwin brothers. They all came up through that Tin Pan Alley tradition, and Bernstein was the first one to come from the concert hall, if you will, to be an outsider and look in at this comic-book of an art form called the musical comedy and see that it had the potential and impact to tell a real story.”

Even more successful on Broadway was the subsequent Wonderful Town, in which Bernstein again worked with Comden and Green: It won five Tony Awards including that for Best Musical and it included a fistful of hit songs including “A Little Bit in Love,” “Ohio,” “Wrong Note Rag” and “Conga.”

More unusual among Bernstein’s Broadway successes, each in its own way, were West Side Story and Candide. For its part West Side Story, though it contains some of Bernstein’s greatest music in any genre, is problematic not just because it relies so much on Jerome Robbins’ dance but because its vocal writing yearns toward the operatic yet asks “normal” Broadway singers to sing the roles. “It’s kind of asking too much,” George says. Bernstein and his collaborators strove for something new and different, though they feared if it were too “operatic” their Broadway audiences might not get it. “They wanted to keep it in the world of musical theater, but retain the power of emotion that an opera can project.” West Side Story’s impact was profound, and its fusion made possible Gypsy, Sondheim and beyond. “It paved the way for telling a deeper story than musical theater had been used to doing,” George says.

As for high-versus-low, not to worry: Both of the leads for MHT’s production, Alison Sneegas Borberg and Ben Gulley, can sing in their “opera voices” or their “Broadway voices”—or anything in between. (Also joining them are Stefanie Wienecke, Linnaia McKenzie, Jacob Aaron Cullum, Justin McCoy and others.) This will come in handy for Candide, a piece often performed by opera companies these days, and one that despite its populist approach reveals the composer’s classical roots with its nods to Prokofiev, Aaron Copland, Gilbert & Sullivan and others. “I think Bernstein often felt that writing a Mass or a symphony or a concerto was too restrictive, that there were too many rules.” George says. “I think he was motivated to write for Broadway partly because he found himself a lot freer to express himself.”

Musical Theater Heritage’s format is ideal for Bernstein’s songs, which to be sure hold up nicely under just about any circumstances. Still, there’s much to be gained from the “semi-staged” approach that MTH has made its trademark, George says. “What you gain is a concentrated theater experience: It’s like a theatrical bullion cube. … We put our money on the talent to deliver that music, the songs and the acting in a way that you’re not going to find around here, except maybe with a touring company.”

It’s similar to what radio theater does, actually. “Radio trains the mind to create the costumes and sets,” he says. “We stage it in such a way that we bring the story alive and you fill in the costumes and the sets in your mind’s eye.” Many people leave MTH shows feeling they’ve learned for the first time what a show was really about. “The music really steps forward, and the story pops forward.” Moreover, he says, you get to see the actors face-on from beginning to end. In a love scene, for example, “instead of seeing the sides of their faces, or the backs of their heads, they’re telling the story from the waist up, looking straight at the audience. So the story is portrayed entirely on their faces.”

“Bernstein’s Broadway” runs through April 13th. For tickets call (816) 545-6000 or see mthkc.com.

Read Paul Horsley each week at kcindependent.com/arts-corner. To reach him directly send email to phorsley@sbcglobal.net, or find him on Facebook (paul.horsley.501) or Twitter (phorsleycritic).

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