House of Flowers

Back in the days when Truman Capote wore bangs, he wrote a short story called House of Flowers about the ladies of a bordello on a Caribbean island. When he expanded it into a musical comedy in 1954, it fairly swarmed with talent--Pearl Bailey and Diahann Carroll sang, Geoffrey Holder danced, Balanchine worked on the choreography, Oliver Messel designed the sets, and Harold Arlen turned out a lilting, lyrical musical score. Nonetheless, House of Flowers faded fast.

Too much gilding for the lily was the diagnosis--too much manner for the matter. "I had wanted it to be a simple thing," said Capote. This year, he decided to try it that way, at the 299-capacity Theater de Lys. "This is going to be the show we meant to present," said Truman. "If I'm going to lose, I want to lose my own way."

Which he has proceeded to do. His new House is made of plain rattan instead of exuberant Caribbean rococo, and it has only a couple of flowers instead of a whorish chorus line. But the story about Ottilie turning down rich Lord Jamison for poor Royal Bonaparte and the fluctuating fortunes of Madame Fleur has neither the strength nor the wit to profit by this scaled-down production. Arlen's charm-marinated score--which includes a rousing new wedding number called Jump de Broom--gains nothing from small voices onstage and a five-piece combo in the orchestra pit. Yolande Bavan as Ottilie is as pretty as she is unconvincing, and funky-voiced Josephine Premice brings a fine high style to the role of Madame Fleur. But if the 1954 House was too much, the 1968 one is too little.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.