© San Francisco Examiner
September 10, 1999
Classic Musical Splendidly Sung
by Philip Elwood
CABARET FAVORITE Andrea Marcovicci this weekend is headlining the cast of 42nd Street Moon’s
production of “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever” at the Gershwin Theater. Co-starring is Michael DeVries,
familiar to Broadway and Bay Area musical theatergoers.
“On a Clear Day You Can See Forever” began life as “I Picked a Daisy,” with book and lyrics by Alan Jay
Lerner and Richard Rodgers, but after many months of wrangling, Rodgers quit the project. Lerner
remained, joined by composer Burton Lane.
The musical, renamed, opened with much fanfare in October 1965, lasted on Broadway for less than a
year, and then enjoyed a reasonably long afterlife on tour. Barbra Streisand starred in the mediocre film
version.
Marcovicci, as Daisy/Melinda; DeVries as Dr. Mark Bruckner; Helene O’Connor, Gordon Goodman, Steve
Rhyne and the rest of the rather large cast, directed by Wayne Bryan, do a generally splendid job weaving
their theatrical and musical way through Lerner’s complex, confusing, and often dated plot.
Dr. Bruckner, we learn at the show’s start, is a specialist in hypnosis, extrasensory perception and the like. He discovers that his student, Daisy Gamble, harbors an inner soul named Melinda Wells, an 18th century English strumpet. In breaking Daisy’s cigarette addiction by hypnosis, Bruckner discovers he’s dealing with two women, two centuries apart.
Complications arise, including Daisy/Melinda dumping her 18th century husband as well as her 20th century
fiancé finally realizing that Dr. Bruckner is her (Daisy’s) real love.
A fine actress (note her ACT credits) as well as singer, Marcovicci has a grand time as Daisy/Melinda, and although the show’s beautiful title song is DeVries’, she is charming and quite winning in singing “Hurry! It’s Lovely Up Here,” and “What Did I Have That I Don’t Have?,” a reference to her double role. She is also delightful when joining Paula Sonenberg, Martin Lewis and Kirk Mills in singing the jaunty “On the S.S. Bernard Cohn,” an excursion ship on which she and DeVries spend a day.
She’s also outstanding in a quintet singing, “Wait Till We’re Sixty-Five,” an interesting song about scrimping, saving and working hard so that at 65 (if you make it) you might enjoy life. Marcovicci’s effervescent performance makes all the difference in this production.
DeVries, with his strong tenor, does very well by three of the show’s best numbers: “Melinda,” “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” and “Come Back to Me,” the show’s closer. Lerner’s lyrics to “On a Clear Day. . .” are curiously fascinating, but no one, including Lerner himself, was sure what they
meant.
Considering the show’s psychologically confused theme, maybe it doesn’t matter.
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