'Unsinkable Molly Brown' Adapted For A New Century
DENVER (CBS4) - Can a 50-year-old traditional Broadway musical be revised and reborn to fit the sensibilities of a new century?
If that show is the "Unsinkable Molly Brown" with its current cast and production team, the answer is a resounding yes, Critic at Large Greg Moody reports.
The Denver Center Theater Company musical is playing at the Stage Theatre through Oct. 26, and it has new songs, direction and choreography by Kathleen Marshall and Castle Rock native and Broadway star Beth Malone playing the lead role of the legendary Coloradan.
If there was a problem with this show before, it was simply that the musical never really delved into who Brown really was.
But now, in Dick Scanlan's revised version, we are reintroduced to the Molly who made Colorado and Denver her home.
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"The new version with the some music and a lot of new book restores my faith in the show," Moody said. "Especially through the high energy, gotta-love-it performance by Malone."
"Her Molly is brash yet kind, simple and complex, loving and hilariously obnoxious."
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Malone is matched onstage by the booming presence of Burke Moses as J.J. Brown as well as an excellent ensemble cast.
According to Moody, there is still a lot of work to be done on this show.
"There are at least two scenes and one song I'd really like to see gone," Moody said. "The show remains a work in progress, but the cast and creative team are clearly on the right track, and it's great to be able to say 'Hey, I saw this when ...' "
LINK: denvercenter.org
About Molly Brown
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The "unsinkable" Molly Brown got her name after she became one of the survivors of the The Titanic, but she was also a crusader for women's rights, even running for a Colorado senate seat.
She moved to Leadville in early 1886 to keep house for her brother and met James Joseph Brown later that year. After a whirlwind courtship they married on Sept. 1, 1886. The Browns struck it rich when J.J.'s persistence at the Little Johnny mine led to the discovery of vast quantities of gold and copper in 1893.
The Brown family moved to Denver in 1894 and Molly founded the Dumb Friend's League, designed the juvenile court system and ran for US Senate in 1914. The Molly Brown House, located on Pennsylvania Street, is one of Denver's popular tourist attractions. A popular musical based on her life and experiences called "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" still pleases audiences after 50 years of various runs, including one on Broadway in the 1960s. It was also a feature film at the time starring Debbie Reynolds.
