DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES; Two People (Sumptuously) Stranded at Sea — Review

Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel, whose book and music for The Light in the Piazza lavishly replicated the dizziness of young love 20 years ago, turn their top-shelf craft toward bleaker outlooks in their adaptation of Days of Wine and Roses. Transferring to Broadway after a well-received premiere at the Atlantic last summer, Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James give astonishing voice to two lovers drowning in alcoholism. The subject matter is almost corrosively downbeat but, with its two leads at the top of their game, the one-act musical becomes a cathartic, deeply felt tonic.

JP Miller’s original story has carried a bit of the temperance-movement melodramatic since its 1958 debut as a teleplay (which he then adapted for Blake Edwards’ 1962 film). Public relations lush Joe Clay charms new secretary Kirsten Arnesen into forgetting her teetotalling for a sip of a Brandy Alexander, and their relationship becomes further entrenched in their parallel (sometimes intersecting) spirals into full-blown addiction.

The die is cast from her first sip, and the story only deviates from expectation in the ways each lover stumbles, an unflinching refusal to look up which may grate some. The predeterminism is a bit dreary, but Lucas’ book ably creates moments of tenderness between Joe and Kirsten to partly offset the relationship’s fate.

Working from Miller’s text, the adaptation smooths out downward paths (Joe is now a Korean War vet; a flashback in one scene telegraphing what a detailed characterization could do much more elegantly) but grants them Guettel’s gorgeous, alternately swooning and jazzy score, along which to soar and descend. O’Hara and d’Arcy James sound particularly heavenly taking their turns on two solos they both get cracks at, “Forgiveness” and the haunting “There Go I.”

Michael Greif directs the almost-song cycle well, with Dede Ayite’s costumes and Lizzie Clachan’s scenic design nicely aiding the story’s mid-century cosmopolitan milieu.

Days of Wine and Roses is in performance through April 28, 2024 at Studio 54 on West 54th Street in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.