Rothchild and Sons

I still remember the excitement when the show The Rothschilds was first announced, some 35 years ago.  It was a new musical by composer Jerry Bock and lyricist Sheldon Harnick, the songwriting team responsible  for the  magnificent Fiddler on the Roof. I still remember, too, the general disappointment that so many felt when The Rothschilds finally opened on Broadway in 1970; the score was quite a let-down after Fiddler.  The star, Hal Linden, won a Tony Award, but the show itself—telling the saga of the famous banking dynasty—didn’t really excite the public.

Composer Jerry Bock died a few years ago. But Sheldon Harnick and Sherman Yellen, who wrote the book for The Rothschilds, are, fortunately, still with us. And they’ve reimagined the musical. Now retitled Rothschild and Sons, the new version is a much more intimate show, featuring a cast of 11, headed by Robert Cuccioli as patriarch Meyer Rothschild, and it is told in one act. I like the script Yellen has given us, which is educational without being too preachy; it has an inspiring, uplifting, very humane feel to it. We root for the good guys; the Rothschilds are not just fighting for personal success, they are fighting anti-Semitism.

Robert Cuccioli—whom I’ve appreciated in shows ranging from Jekyll and Hyde to Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark—gives the finest, mostly subtly shaded performance I’ve seen in a career spanning 25 years. It is worth going to the show just to see him. And Mark Pinter, playing various villainous characters, is deliciously evil; he performs with great relish and adds much to the night. Jim Morgan’s set makes highly effective use of the York space; the set and staging help the theater to feel bigger than it actually is.

I’m glad I saw Rothschild and Sons, and I applaud the determination of the the surviving co-creators to put the material in the best possible shape. But the score still feels too much of the time, like weak tea.  It does not have the robust vitality, variety, or melodic charm of Fiddler—or of She Loves Me, The Apple Tree, or Fiorello!—to name three other great Bock and Harnick shows. The blander songs weigh the evening down. There is still a good bit to enjoy. But a musical really needs a captivating score, and this score show is still the weakest of the well-known Bock and Harnick shows.