The conventional wisdom is that composer
John Kander
and co-librettist and lyricist
Fred Ebb
's 70, Girls, 70, based on the play Breath of Spring, flopped as a Broadway musical in the spring of 1971 because of a combination of bad luck (one of its intended stars,
David Burns
, literally died in Philadelphia) and an overabundance of shows of the same type. (A revival of No, No, Nanette and
Stephen Sondheim
's Follies, both also featuring senior citizens as stars, preceded it.) It may be, however, that the show was simply too slight an entertainment. The idea concerned a hotel for poor, aging people who went on a crime spree, stealing clothing. Typical for
Kander
and
Ebb
, there was also a show within a show, such that it was really about a group of old Broadway troupers playing poor, aging people in a hotel going on a crime spree, which allowed for songs like
"Broadway, My Street."
And also typical for the songwriting team,
turned out 1920s pastiche music (appropriate for the over-70 performers), while
simultaneously celebrated and satirized the material. Typical was
"Coffee in a Cardboard Cup,"
in which
Lillian Hayman
Goldye Shaw
explained that "the trouble with the world today" was that "everything is hurry up." Meanwhile,
Lucie Lancaster
Gil Lamb
addressed the question of septuagenarian sex in
"Do We?"
Star
Mildred Natwick
finally examined the inevitable question of death in
"The Elephant Song"
before her character actually did die, which did not keep her from coming back at the close for the affirmative closer,
"Yes."
There were, thus, a few good songs, even if 70, Girls, 70 was a minor effort from a major Broadway team. ~ William Ruhlmann