Theater: Monopod

THE MOST HAPPY FELLA

Music, Lyrics and Book by Frank Loesser

A virus is beginning to infect the Broadway musical and its name is opera. Last season's Sweeney Todd strained to achieve operatic style with recitatives and songs structured like arias; this season's Evita dispenses entirely with spoken dialogue.

The revival of The Most Happy Fella (first produced on Broadway in 1956) most clearly reveals the imbalance that occurs in a musical when it opts for the operatic mode. A musical rests on a tripod of book, score and dance. Opera-oriented shows almost inevitably rely on only a monopod, song.

The book, rarely the strong point of an opera, invariably suffers most. The plot line of The Most Happy Fella is the kind of story that babies tell to babies. An elderly Italian-born Napa Valley grape grower named Tony (Giorgio Tozzi) is smitten with instant love for Rosabella (Sharon Daniels), a young San Francisco waitress. Tony woos and wins her by mail, aided by the deceptive use of a photograph of his strappingly virile farm manager, Joe (Richard Muenz).

On the wedding day, Rosabella is appalled to discover the ruse, but she marries Tony, who has broken his leg. Lonely and vulnerable, she spends the wedding night with Joe. As she tends Tony, she grows to love him, but pregnancy will out, and in a temper-tossed finale Tony forgives her, presumably forever.

The opulent score has long attracted a cult following. It is justifiable in such numbers as Standing on the Corner, Big D and Don 't Cry. The evening's choicest prize is the marvel of the human voice — unamplified. Opera star Tozzi sings with the richness of burnished bronze and Daniels complements him with her pellucid soprano. They and their colleagues practice vocal witchcraft. —T.E.K.