Donna Murphy masters a madwoman’s attempt to save humanity in this Jerry Herman musical

The Rundown

Two-time Tony winner Donna Murphy (Passion, The King and I, and Mrs. Astor on HBO’s The Gilded Age) leads the New York City Center Encores! production of the rarely produced Jerry Herman musical, Dear World. The concert series celebrates American musicals — some notable and others that missed the mark in their original ideation.

Based on Jean Giradoux’s play The Madwoman of Chaillot, Dear World follows the escapades of Countess Aurelia (Murphy), an eccentric woman hellbent on saving her Parisian neighborhood from a corporate president (Brooks Ashmanskas delivering delicious Trumpisms along with a wispy hint of Paul Lynde), prospector (Stanley Wayne Mathis) and a posse of lawyers who want to blow up a beloved café to tap the underground oil supply.

No Tea, No Shade

Encores! is known for its 10-day accelerated rehearsal process. In this case, Murphy tested positive for Covid on day one and returned with only five days to learn the role with the 28-member company. The whirlwind served her well. Sporting a ghostly wig, a mash-up of textiles and costume jewelry designed by Toni Leslie James, and raccoon eyes that would rival Norma Desmond, Murphy turns this madwoman into the town matriarch.

Herman wrote the scores for Hello, Dolly! (1964), Mame (1966), and La Cage aux Folles (1984) but failed to reach that level of notoriety with Dear World, though Murphy makes the most of it. A master musical interpreter who can shift from forlorn gravitas to quirky humor on the drop of a hairpin, she mines the material with the ferocity of a woman on a mission to save the planet.

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Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s book, along with additional material from David Thompson’s 2006 revision and further adaption by Sandy Rustin for City Center, is remarkably resonant. The musical, now 54 years old, foreshadows through a satirical lens our global struggle with environmentalism, the effects of capitalism, and our hunger for power that diminishes human connection.

When a young man Julian (Phillip Johnson Richardson) attempts suicide by throwing himself into the Seine, Aurelia tells the policeman, “When people want to die, it’s your job, as a guardian of the state, to speak out in praise of life. Isn’t there a pleasure or passion that you enjoy? … Go on, then. Teach this boy how to value life.”

Julian falls for café waitress Nina (Samantha Williams), setting the musical’s obligatory romance in motion, but Murphy’s Aurelia ultimately warms the audience’s heart.  

Let’s Have a Moment

Though the setting differs entirely from 1965’s Man of La Mancha, Aurelia’s unconventional optimism — rooted in love and life — echoes Don Quixote’s impossible dream. When Julian confesses the President’s plan to blow up the café and drill for oil, she laughs, saying, “But that can’t be! This is Paris! The world is beautiful, happy.” She refuses to believe the world is changing and sings one of Dear World’s most notable songs, “I Don’t Want to Know.”

Haunting and wild-eyed, Murphy clutches to Herman’s lyrics and ascending melody:

If music is no longer lovely
If laughter is no longer lilting
If lovers are no longer loving
Then I don’t want to know

So if, my friends, if love is dead
I don’t want to know

The Last Word

Dear World is not a queer musical manifesto like La Cage aux Folles, but rather queer adjacent in its themes of love, acceptance, and resilience.

Countess Aurelia may not be as well-known as matchmaker Dolly Levi, Auntie Mame, or the original Old Gays Georges and Albin, but in the hands of Donna Murphy, she is equally as captivating and a worthy musical theater icon.

Dear World plays at New York City Center through March 19.