With a book by two-time Tony Award-winner Joe DiPietro (last season's Tony Award-winning Memphis, for which he won Tony awards for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score), NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT features some of George and Ira Gershwin's most beloved songs as well as some unknown gems in the Gershwin catalog. This screwball romantic comedy takes place in the 1920s and centers around a wealthy playboy who gets mixed up with a hilarious trio of bootleggers.
The cast is spot-on. Is there any ingenue role in musical theater that Kelli O’Hara — of “The Pajama Game” and “South Pacific” revivals — couldn’t make her very own? In “Nice Work,” even given a stellar cast, when she’s on the stage she often is the single focus, by sheer force of her ability to sing any song fully in character, and deliver it with a striking musicality. This leaves her leading man, Matthew Broderick, in an uncomfortable position. Although his part of a rich playboy with a low-wattage brain means he must appear as a constant shade of gray among the colorful characters on stage, a part he delivers earnestly, his singing seems only serviceable by comparison to O’Hara’s.
Every now and then, a bubble of pure, tickling charm rises from the artificial froth of “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” the pastiche of a 1920s musical featuring songs by George and Ira Gershwin. Most of this show, which opened on Tuesday night at the Imperial Theater, registers as a shiny, dutiful trickle of jokes and dance numbers performed by talented people who don’t entirely connect with the whimsy of a bygone genre.
2012 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2012 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Kelli O'Hara |
2012 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Book of a Musical | Joe DiPietro |
2012 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Kathleen Marshall |
2012 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Costume Design | Martin Pakledinaz |
2012 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Kathleen Marshall |
2012 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | Michael McGrath |
2012 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Judy Kaye |
2012 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Musical | 0 |
2012 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Orchestrations | Bill Elliott |
2012 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Matthew Broderick |
2012 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Kelli O'Hara |
2012 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Production of a Musical | 0 |
2012 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Kelli O’Hara |
2012 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Book of a Musical (Broadway or Off-Broadway) | 0 |
2012 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Choreographer | Kathleen Marshall |
2012 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Costume Design (Play or Musical) | Martin Pakledinaz |
2012 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Kathleen Marshall |
2012 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | Michael McGrath |
2012 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | Chris Sullivan |
2012 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Judy Kaye |
2012 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Set Design (Play or Musical) | Derek McLane |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Book of a Musical | Joe DiPietro |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Choreography | Kathleen Marshall |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Musical | Martin Pakledinaz |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Musical | Kathleen Marshall |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Ronald Frankel |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Harold Newman |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Jon B. Platt |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Raise the Roof 8 |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Takonkiet Viravan |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | William Berlind |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Ed Burke |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Carole L. Haber/Susan Carusi, Buddy and Barbara Freitag/Sanford Robertson |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Jim Herbert |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Under the Wire |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Emanuel Azenberg |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | The Shubert Organization |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Freddy DeMann |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Candy Spelling |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Standing CO Vation |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Roy Furman |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Sonia Friedman Productions |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Roger Berlind |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Scott Landis |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Nice Work If You Can Get It |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Orchestrations | Bill Elliott |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical | Michael McGrath |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical | Judy Kaye |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical | Kelli O'Hara |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Sound Design of a Musical | Brian Ronan |
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