Review - Daddy Long Legs

I was very grateful to be gifted a comp to last night's performance of Daddy Long Legs, the new (though long-gestating) musical at the Ken Davenport Theatre.  Based on a 1912 novel, this musical has a score by Paul Gordon and a libretto by John Caird, both of whom are known for bigger Broadway projects (Jane Eyre and Nicholas Nickleby, respectively, just to name a couple of titles), but this piece is quite small and quaint.  Just two actors, three musicians who sit on top of the set, in a very small Off-Broadway house on the west side.  I think a small house is best for this show, which is intimate in scope - sitting very close to the two very charming actors added a nice warmth to the proceedings.  Though I will admit to being puzzled why the house was filled with the seats by the wall first and the aisle seats were mainly open.  Do they save the aisle seats for latecomers?  It just seemed to strange to me to only seat people in the three seats closest to the wall instead of the aisle, and being in the second row may have been a tad too close for me because my neck was a little sore after the show.  But I digress...

Before the show, just to quickly mention seat neighbors, the gal next to me seems to be obsessed with Leslie Caron and her film version of Daddy Long Legs.  I knew that this musical wouldn't be similar to that film, but my seat neighbor apparently wasn't.  She spent the time before the show started looking up synopses and photos of Leslie Caron to show her mate, then at intermission, she chose to watch You Tube videos of Leslie Caron.  I mean, come on.  Stay home and watch the movie if that's what you want to see!  I always find that kind of thing a little annoying.  Other seat neighbors included the obnoxious kids behind me, one of whom kept exclaiming "I ate a lot of cheese today," which, frankly, made me a little nervous.  Also, sitting in front of me, were three burly guys speaking French.  They will be mentioned again later.

Anyway.  Daddy Long Legs, as I said before, is a sweet little musical, about the orphan Jerusha Abbott and her benefactor, Jervis Pendleton, who, because of a series of misunderstandings, Jerusha calls "Daddy Long Legs."  Pendleton, via the pseudonym Mr. Smith, is funding Jerusha's college education after reading a promising essay she wrote (he's on the board of the orphanage where she lives).  He's also, not-so-coincidentally, the uncle of one of Jerusha's college chums.  OH, and he's also young and handsome, though Jerusha thinks of him as old, since she's never met him, she only briefly saw his shadow once.  I think those are all the details you need.  The story is told entirely through Jerusha's letters to her Daddy Long Legs, detailing her life in college.  And, of course, Jervis slowly falls in love with the irrepressible Jerusha, first through her letters, and then when he meets her (through other various machinations). 



photo credit: Jeremy Daniel

A small, romantic musical like this could become sickeningly or cloyingly sweet very quickly, but I think Daddy Long Legs steers clear of that to just be sweet and charming.  It also has the possibility of being vaguely creepy and misogynistic, because of the power imbalance through the piece (Jervis is reading the letters and knows everything Jerusha is thinking, whereas she doesn't know that Daddy Long Legs and Jervis are the same person, until the very end).  To its credit, Daddy Long Legs is aware of this problem and does its best to counteract it.  Jervis continually acknowledges the imbalance in their relationship and often tries to tell Jerusha the truth, but it doesn't work out for him.  He doesn't make his feelings for her known until she's out from under his obligation and making a living for herself.  Also, the character of Jerusha is smart, funny, a feminist and a socialist, and doesn't change just to 'get her man.'  Jervis VALUES her for these qualities, so I think all of those things counterbalance the potential pitfalls of the plot.  But the show works most especially because of Megan McGinnis' performance as Jerusha.  She's really enchanting, very quick and clever, with enough sweetness and vigor to be very appealing.  And her singing is just delightful.  The songs are pleasant, frequently with clever lyrics, but a lot of them do start to sound the same after awhile.  But McGinnis gives each song, no matter how it sounds, her full commitment of character.  She's really quite wonderful.

photo credit: Jeremy Daniel

Adam Halpin plays Jervis and part of the charm of the two of them is that they're married in real life!  Often, real life couples exhibit little to no chemistry when they perform together (I don't know why that is), but these two had a little sparkle and cute energy together.  It was charming.  That's what the show has in spades - charm.  Plus, I was in the mood for charm after the sadness and confusion of the last piece I saw.  Not that Daddy Long Legs is perfect, it's not.  It's much too long (it runs about two and a half hours with intermission), the two-character-singing-letters-back-and-forth can get monotonous, and the vaguely pop-ish sound to the music wasn't appealing to me after awhile.  I think I would've much preferred a more early 1900s vibe to the songs.  That might have made them more distinctive.  But that could just be me. 

Because I'm me, of course I teared up a little at the completely obvious ending.  Love conquers all, don't you know.  Shockingly, I noticed the burliest of the French guys in front of me absolutely HEAVING with sobs at the end.  Heaving.  I'm not exaggerating.  I thought about giving my number to such a sensitive guy (who speaks French), but didn't.  He's probably relieved.  The applause after the production was quite lengthy and enthusiastic, so I think everyone enjoyed the show quite a lot.  If you're in the mood for a sweet little show with a terrific performance (by Megan McGinnis, who I'm now a big fan of), you could do worse than Daddy Long Legs...