Sarava
OPENING: February 12 1979*
CLOSING: June 17, 1979
Seen: February 1979
LOCATION: Mark Hellinger Theatre
Ah, perfectionism.
The enemy to writers, the killer of stories. We all want our work to be perfect, but what happens when nothing ever ends up being good enough?
This is exactly what happened to 1979’s Sarava.
Based on the 1966 novel Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado and the subsequent film of the same name, Sarava tells the story of Dona Flor, a woman who has remarried years after her husband’s death. When Dona goes to sleep one night, she finds not only her current husband in bed with her, but also the ghost of her first husband.
It seemed like a sure thing. The novel did really well, as did the film. One of my sources even says that it held the record for highest grossing Brazilian film for thirty five years. Composer Mitch Leigh of La Mancha fame was looking for his next hit and he was sure he could do it with Sarava.
But perfectionism laced with an over eager team is a recipe for disaster. The first preview for Sarava was on January 11th, 1979. I cannot find definitive proof of this, but based on what I have read in several articles and reviews, I feel as though the team may have prematurely scheduled it and not realized their mistake until after it was on stage. It may have been the very expensive ad campaign that was running on televisions across New York that pressured them to go full steam ahead or it may have been a very green creative team. Whatever the reason for the accelerated preview schedule, opening night was postponed several times. It was postponed enough that prominent reviewers, who are given their opening night tickets free of charge, ended up buying their own almost two weeks before the “Official” opening.
You may have noticed that I starred opening night in my entry opener above. That is because to this day, the Broadway league cannot decide what night was the official opening. Was it February 12, the night that Richard Eder – the top New York Times critic – lead the media charge with their self-bought tickets, or was it the day that the critics were told they would have been given their tickets, February 23rd? No one is quite sure, which makes Sarava one of, if not the only, the few shows in Broadway history to not have an opening night.
A delayed first preview would have done the show many favors. Out of the reviewers to attend on February 12th, only Eder gave a kind review but even his piece by no means was a rave. Even the show’s leading lady – a young girl by the name of Tovah Feldshuh who Eder adored – had a hard time with the material. As with most shows that struggle in such fashion, Sarava did not stand much of a chance in the aggressive Broadway landscape. It closed after only four months.
From what I have been able to deduce, I believe that it even only lasted that long because of Ms. Feldshuh. If I had managed to get this entry out when I was supposed to (Namely, May 13 2023), it would have been 50 year Broadway anniversary. Her longevity is no accident. I had the pleasure of seeing her in concert about ten years ago and she is still a powerhouse performer. She is currently playing the role of Mrs. Brice in Funny Girl on Broadway alongside Lea Michele.
As for my dad’s experience with it? I don’t know, I didn’t ask. But it’s not something I can see him enjoying. My guess is that it may have been a TKTS purchase. But he also did see it the month it opened, so maybe he was lured by the TV commercials. Either guess is valid.
The lesson that Sarava can teach us? Don’t rush the process. Bring a show to the stage when it’s ready. It was a tough lesson that another show, Merlin, did not learn. It made almost made the exact same mistakes that Sarava did and even did it in the same exact theater.
Sarava has no cast recording. There are no easily accessible production photos, though I assume there are some at Lincoln Center. It is another one that Broadway has seemingly forgotten, though maybe some ambitious writer will some day stumble across it and fix the mistakes that the original made.
CAST: ORIGINAL
VADINHO: P.J. Benjamin
FLOR: Tovah Feldshuh
ARIGOF: Reginald Cannon-Jackson
COSTAS: DonCharles Manning
MANUEL: Wilfredo Suarez
DEALER: JACK NEUBECK
DIONISA: CAROL JEAN LEWIS
POLICEMEN: Daniel Lorenzo, Gaetan Young
DONA PAIVA: BETTY WALKER
ROSALIA: RANDY GRAFF
ANTONIO: ALAN ABRAMS
PRIEST: Ken Waller
TEO: Michael Ingram
SENHOR BALDEZ: Jack Neubeck
PINHO: David Kottke
THE PEOPLE OF BAHIA: Steve J. Ace, Frank Cruz, Donna Cyrus, Marlene Danielle, Adrienne Frimet, Brenda Garratt, Trudie Green, Jane Judge, David Kottke, Daniel Lorenzo, DonCharles Manning, Jack Neubeck, Thelma Anne Nevitt, Ivson Polk, Wynonna Smith, Michelle Stubs, Wilfredo Suarez, Ken Waller, Freida Ann Williams, John Leslie Wolfe, Gaetan Young.
UNDERSTUDIES: Donna Cyrus (Flor, Rosalia); Jack Neubeck (Vadinho, Antonio); Ken Waller (Teo); Jane Judge (Dona Paiva); Freida Ann Williams (Dionisia); DonCharles Manning (Arigof); Gaetan Young (Arigof, Costas); John Leslie Wolfe (Priest); Frank Cruz (Policeman, Manuel); and John Brigleb (Dealer, Senior Baldez, Pinho).
Bordman, Gerald. “American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle.” New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1978.
Culwell-Block, Logan. “Photos and Video: See Tovah Feldshuh Celebrate her 50-Year Broadway Career Onstage at Funny Girl.”. Playbill, May 15, 2023. https://playbill.com/article/photos-and-video-see-tovah-feldshuh-celebrate-her-50-year-broadway-career-onstage-at-funny-girl
Eder, Richard. “Theater: An Elegant, Bloodless ‘Dracula’.” New York Times, October 21, 1977. https://www.nytimes.com/1977/10/21/archives/new-jersey-weekly-theater-an-elegant-bloodless-dracula.html?searchResultPosition=2
Fassler, Ron. “The Saga of “Sarava”’. Medium, February 23, 2023. https://ronfassler.medium.com/the-saga-of-sarava-bc8587671ced
Franklin, Marc J. “Step Inside Broadway’s Mark Hellinger Theatre.” Playbill, February 6, 2019. https://playbill.com/article/step-inside-broadways-mark-hellinger-theatre#:~:text=Hollywood%20Theatre%2C%20the%20Mark%20Hellinger,renowned%20theatre%20journalist%20in%201949
Goodreads. “Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.” Goodreads. Accessed May 2023. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/147039.Dona_Flor_and_Her_Two_Husbands
