Gene Barry and John
Steele
Watergate - The Musical |
Little has been written about Watergate:
A Musical. I did find this unsigned article:
"Watergate: A Musical is a simple story. A precocious tyke by
the name of Benjamin (John Steele) becomes separated from a White House
tour and stumbles somehow into that sanctum sanctorum of the Executive
Branch, the Oval Office, where Richard Nixon (Gene Barry), having only
hours earlier deliverd his resignation speech, is packing to
exit. Benjamin seeks answers from the source about "what went
wrong" over at the Watergate. He is trying also to uncover not
the wrong-doer that so many are touting Nixon to be, but an honorable
leader in which an astute and pure-minded 12-year-old can
believe. Rather than seeing the young innocent promptly returned
to his tour, Nixon submits to Benjamin's interrogation.
Thus we are off on a high-stepping, toe-tapping song fest about the
event of a decade. The audience is fed a play-by-play recap of
Watergate highlights, interspersed with songs and dance
sequences. Moments of dramatic tension arise rarely: in a scene
with John Dean (John Purcell) and his wife, Maureen (Nancy Farrar) and
again at the Nixon dinner table. These help to awaken the
audience to the true crisis in which the characters find themselves
suddenly embroiled. Otherwise, the import of the story fades
behind the glittering smiles of singers and dancers.
... Mr. Barry, a veteran of stage, screen and television, does a
remarkably fine job of portraying Mr. Nixon, handling Nixon's
idiosyncracies in a subtle and well-balanced manner."
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