Bye Bye Birdie

Poor BYE BYE BIRDIE! It can't get any respect.

A terrific unexpected hit on Broadway in 1960 (608p. April 14 - Oct. 7, 1961, at the Martin Beck, 54th Street & Shubert Theatres and reproduced by virtually every high school drama department in the country!), it was travestied as a 1963 film that threw out half the plot and tossed in a TOTALLY inappropriately old and slutty (except for libidinous teenagers and dirty old men) Ann Margaret as a supposed "teenager." At least IT had the good sense to retain most of the best of the Broadway Cast (except for the luminous Chita Rivera as "Rosie").

Now in 1995, falsely advertising itself as a "faithful" filming of the show, we are given for our sins a "cast by 'Q Ratings'" travesty (the supposedly innocent ...BIRDIE is set before "Loving vs. Virginia" and an interracial couple, Albert & Rosie, in Sweetwater, Ohio would have been more controversial than Conrad Birdie's supposedly worldly "bad influence") with three exceedingly dull songs replacing better ones and Michael Stewart's finely tuned book diluted by someone who seems to have thought the Rock Hudson/Doris Day movies were too challenging.

There are bright spots rising above the amateur re-writing and direction (can this possibly be the same Gene Sacks who gave us the original MAME on stage? Hollywood certainly didn't agree with him!): Marc Kudisch is a legitimately wonderful "Birdie," and the always superbly grounded Tyne Daly almost pulls off an appropriately cartoonish Mae (Albert's mother). Everyone else however is cast with as little concern for the characters they are playing as Ann Margaret was in the first movie version, but without the lecherous overlay, and consequently sink to new professional lows. Jason Alexander is a decent comic actor - always the "go-to guy" if you couldn't afford Nathan Lane (rather like Sally Ann Howes was to Julie Andrews), but if you remember Albert as a charismatic, lanky dancer like Dick Van Dyke, give this sad remake a very wide berth.

This film should be filed in the why bother cabinet. Yes, you could say that it sticks closer to the Broadway version of the show, and you would be right. However, the Hollywood version of this Broadway show was always a lot more fun, with incredibly impressive musical numbers. This version, with alleged choreography by Ann Reinking, is just a big bore. The cast is generally not right for their roles, either. Jason Alexander is in fine voice, but he just isn't Albert, Chynna Phillips (looking more and more like Papa John, everyday), is too old. So was Ann-Margret in the 1963 version; but at least she had the energetic appeal of a 16 year old. Phillips comes off like she has iron poor blood. Tyne Daly, is just too loud and annoying, to give Mae Peterson any real laughs or charm (see Maureen Stapleton's 1963 performance). The lone exception is Vanessa Williams, who is delightful as Rosie. She is the only reason to see this misguided remake. She's a true musical comedy talent! But she's not enough to save it. Watch the 1963 film version. It doesn't disappoint. This one, too often, does.

I think it's mostly due to some of the most...questionable casting I have ever seen that makes this movie not work. I mean, they make this big to-do about Rosie being Spanish in this one. I think that's because Chia Rivera had the role in the play, but Chia Rivera is (assumingly) Spanish. Why wasn't a Spanish lady cast in this one instead of Vanessa Williams? It's down-right ridiculous and they keep emphasising that she's Spanish to make it even worse. At least in the 1963 one, when Janet Leigh played Rosie they were smart enough to change the last name and not try to pass her off as something she wasn't.

The casting of Chynna Phillips as Kim was every bit as...well, wrong. She was obviously pushing 30 and quite looked it to, as did every other "teen" in this film. As for Jason Alexander as a romantic lead? Uh..no comment. Plus, I hate when Albert wants to become an English teacher instead of a scientist. I'm aware that it is in the play and such, but it's boring, especially that song that keeps getting reprised where Rosie sings about him wanting to be one. And Alexander is just not right for that part. But nobody really is in this film, sorry to say. Even the usually good Tyne Daly cannot is quite grating and hammy as Albert's mother, and some part where she emerges from a bay of water to give somebody advice and then swims away was horrificly ridiculous.

And what about the climactic ending? I'm not sure about the play, but the 1963 film was able to get to its big climactic scene of Conrad Birdie finally being able to perform at the Ed Sullivan show, after they got rid of the Russians who almost pre-empted him. The people behind this film said in an interview that they got rid of all of the Cold War humor, but why? Maybe the Cold War had ended in 1995, but this is a film set in the 60s when it was still going strong. Did they think Russians watching would be offended? They understand history and can comprehend that those aren't our feelings toward them now. I hate when films try to be all PC like that. It just makes them look bad.

But being PC wasn't the only thing that made this look bad. It was gone way before the ending.

Some individually talented people are miscast and mismatched in this strained dud. Jason Alexander and Vanessa Williams are not a match made in Heaven. Kim appears to be 30. And how do you screw up The Telephone Hour? They did.

I was extremely impressed when I sat down to watch this movie in December 2002. It is a lot like the Broadway musical, and even better! And I loved the new songs - Let's Settle Down, A Giant Step, and A Mother Doesn't Matter Anymore. Tyne Daly was extremely funny in her role as Mamma, I think this is the best thing she has ever done. Keep going!