Irving Berlin and Moss Hart's Depression-era divertissement, "Face the Music," is an enjoyable antecedent of self-satirizing musicals like "The Drowsy Chaperone," "Curtains" and, most notably, "The Producers." The 1932 show opened just two months after the Gershwins' more successful "Of Thee I Sing," which made a welcome return last season in a polished Encores! staging by director John Rando and choreographer Randy Skinner. The same team brings similar verve to this frothy caper about crooked New York cops backing a Broadway show, landing every hoary joke and every charming number from a mostly forgotten score. The show's best known song is "Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee," a perky, chin-up anthem to staying cheerful in the face of hard times that defines the musical's optimistic spirit. That bid to shrug away the gloom is equally apparent in the opening number, "Lunching at the Automat," in which bluebloods burned by the crash swap the Ritz and Pierre's for affordable eats; in "Two Cheers Instead of Three," a White House-endorsed Depression Parade to bolster public morale; and in the playful duet "I Say It's Spinach (And the Hell With It)," which finds resilience in love -- not to mention one of several ebullient tap-dance breaks. No trace of "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" here. The satire is not as prickly as George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind's writing in "Of Thee I Sing," which irreverently skewered presidential elections, political scandals and even American motherhood. But Hart's book, with its Marx Brothers-esque comic lunacy, is not without teeth in its targeting of corrupt New York City administration. "If you make enough money, you might buy yourself a seat on the force," suggests police chief-turned-Broadway backer Martin van Buren Meshbesher (Lee Wilkof). "My husband's business has blossomed the last year," explains his scatter-brained wife (Judy Kaye). "If you'll pardon the expression, we're just lousy with money." Worried that the cash piling up in the police force's little tin boxes will be discovered by federal reformers, Meshbesher needs to offload some surplus.
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Face the Music
