This extremely popular Off Broadway musical was a campy delight during the end of the Jerry Herman "Mame" and "Dolly" days and just prior to the onslaught of Stephen Sondheim's more serious themes of "Company" and "Follies". Made for television with an entirely different cast than its stage production (which included Bernadette Peters), "Dames at Sea" is an affectionate slice of cake look back at a simpler era and filled with both parody and pastiche.
Like "Follies", the Broadway theater this show within a show is set in, is about to be razed, yet this isn't a reunion of former follies girls. This is just as the show is about to open, 40 years before that "Broadway Baby" (ironically also the name of a completely different song in this show not used on T.V.), and desperate producers and performers try to figure out what to do.
In this case, the Warner Baxter/Jerry Orbach producer is played by "Herman Munster" himself, Fred Gwynne, and the temperamental star is none other than Miss Helmut Hair herself, the still tap-dancing Ann Miller. "What am I Doing?", she queries during the rehearsal of her big number, "Wall Street", then proceeds to tap dance around ticker tape before breaking into a sudden vent of diva-like fury. Anne Meara, a definite parody of the Joan Blondell brassy dame with the heart of gold, explodes as well, venting her disgust over the diva's outbursts. In comes sweet as pie chorus girl Ann-Margret who gets the Ruby Keeler part ("Raining in My Heart") and saves the show when the diva can't go on under amusing circumstances.
"It's not Judy Garland or Spanky McFarland, It's You, It's You, It's You", the lyrics in her duet with the Dick Powell like Harvey Evans (from the original cast of Broadway's "Follies"), go. Yes, the lyrics are so corny, you expect Curly from "Oklahoma!" to ride by on his trusted horse. But they are also so corny, they're adorable, and for a TV special from the cynical early 1970's, that's a major plus. Recently brought back for a short-lived but splashy Broadway revival (that pointed out how "Off Broadway" it was), "Dames at Sea" will never top its original "42nd Street" source, and at times, it seems like an over-long Carol Burnett show episode. But with an over-load of talent even with its garish production values, it is definite curio, and worth seeking out.
Like "Follies", the Broadway theater this show within a show is set in, is about to be razed, yet this isn't a reunion of former follies girls. This is just as the show is about to open, 40 years before that "Broadway Baby" (ironically also the name of a completely different song in this show not used on T.V.), and desperate producers and performers try to figure out what to do.
In this case, the Warner Baxter/Jerry Orbach producer is played by "Herman Munster" himself, Fred Gwynne, and the temperamental star is none other than Miss Helmut Hair herself, the still tap-dancing Ann Miller. "What am I Doing?", she queries during the rehearsal of her big number, "Wall Street", then proceeds to tap dance around ticker tape before breaking into a sudden vent of diva-like fury. Anne Meara, a definite parody of the Joan Blondell brassy dame with the heart of gold, explodes as well, venting her disgust over the diva's outbursts. In comes sweet as pie chorus girl Ann-Margret who gets the Ruby Keeler part ("Raining in My Heart") and saves the show when the diva can't go on under amusing circumstances.
"It's not Judy Garland or Spanky McFarland, It's You, It's You, It's You", the lyrics in her duet with the Dick Powell like Harvey Evans (from the original cast of Broadway's "Follies"), go. Yes, the lyrics are so corny, you expect Curly from "Oklahoma!" to ride by on his trusted horse. But they are also so corny, they're adorable, and for a TV special from the cynical early 1970's, that's a major plus. Recently brought back for a short-lived but splashy Broadway revival (that pointed out how "Off Broadway" it was), "Dames at Sea" will never top its original "42nd Street" source, and at times, it seems like an over-long Carol Burnett show episode. But with an over-load of talent even with its garish production values, it is definite curio, and worth seeking out.