Word: blitzstein
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Regina (written & composed by Marc Blitzstein; produced by Cheryl Crawford in association with Clinton Wilder) sets Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes to music. As music, it is more clever than distinguished; as drama, it is clearly a littler Foxes. But on its own terms-and they are wisely very much its own-it is an exhilarating and enjoyable show...
...Little Foxes that Regina has altered: the storyline scarcely varies an inch. It is the tone. With its sharp claws and ruthless clawing, its treacherous wiles and wheelchair theatrics, The Little Foxes might have yielded something inordinately operatic. But though his big scenes are sometimes florid enough, Composer Blitzstein's version of the Alabama Hubbards is fundamentally comic. Regina much less suggests a social critic excoriating an emerging class of plunderers than a first-rate showman exhibiting a prize assortment of hellions. Blitzstein's Hubbards cavort the whole time they conspire, and the general effect is of exuberance...
There is fair warrant for all this: stripped of symbolism, seen as foxes chiefly engaged in outfoxing one another, the Hubbards take their place in the long comic tradition of cheating cheaters. And the tone is becoming to Composer (The Cradle Will Rock) Blitzstein, who gets strident when shaking his fist but is vivacious when thumbing his nose. As plain razzing-it falls flat when it reaches for satire-Regina teems with brisk musical stage directions, brilliant little jingles, V-for-villainy motifs, high-spirited hocuspocus...
...Blitzstein is also a clever musical impersonator: at home in a great variety of styles, he turns out spirited polkas, convincing Negro jazz, grandiose arias, lilting quartets. Moreover, in Regina the music constitutes the actual train ride, not just (as in musicomedy) the stops along the line...
...Blitzstein's musical does not need these exaggerated operatic cliches. It is a pity that the present production suffers from such unsophisticated treatment...