On a clear day you can see forever, is a Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner musical from 1965. It is based loosely on the book Berkley Square and is about a woman who has ESP and has been reincarnated. The original production was plagued with a poorly constructed book with ridiculous plot points and holes that left the audience scratching their heads. It was subsequently turned into a film starring Barbra Streisand in 1970.
The show has never really "worked" though it does have a tuneful and enjoyable score. Michael Mayer had the idea to redevelop the show to try and fix the problems in the book and sew together the holes in the plot. His solution to this was to take the lead character of Daisy (and her alter ego and past life Melinda) and turn her into DAVEY, while still keeping Melinda as a female. Interesting no? Unfortunately it wasn't.
While the idea of Daisy being Davey IS interesting, it wasn't at all executed well. New Book writer Peter Parnell did what he could under the new construct to help make the story make sense, but the concept was not fully developed, or committed to.
A new framing device was added for the Psychiatrist Mark Bruckner (played by Harry Connick Jr.) which basically made him the leading role and delegated the role(s) of Davey and Melinda to supporting characters in what was now HIS story. This may have fixed some of the earlier problems but it added a whole set of new ones.
Harry Connick Jr. was terrible in the role of Mark. His singing (as always) was superb, his acting however (not as always) was stiff and miserable. After the opening monologue we meet "Davey" who is portrayed as a boring, unremarkable type of guy who works in a florist shop. Basically every ounce of charm that Daisey possessed has been removed.
Davey wants to be put under hypnosis so that he can quit smoking and move in with his wonderful boyfriend Warren who hates smoking. While Davey is under hypnosis Dr. Bruckner discovers that Davey has the ability to remember his past lives.
Dr. Bruckner meets Davey's immediate past Life, Melinda, (played by a real girl, Jessie Mueller) and ends up falling in love with her. We see them dancing, experiencing all kinds of things, and we even see them kiss - many times in female form, and once, very quickly in male form.
The problem is that it's difficult to buy into the idea that Dr. Mark doesn't realize that he is looking at a man. It subtly bring up the subject of latent homosexual tendencies and the fact that two people can love each other and that their external parts don't matter but it never actually deals with them in a satisfying way.
Not to mention all of the ethical problems with taking advantage of a patient physically. Even in the 70's I can't imagine a Psychiatrist would not have lost his license for making out with a patient while they were under hypnosis. Luckily we never see them make love, though it is somewhat implied that it may have happened.
On a clear day contains a wonderful score. This production was "augmented" with songs from the film The Royal Wedding which also contained a Lane/Lerner score. The songs mix in just fine, but by separating the two characters the whole thing just loses steam.
The production was not helped with the fact that The Saint James theater is a cavernous house and the story is much more intimate than the theater allowed. Also, the set design, choreography and costume design was near disastrous.
Four things would have made this production better:
1) A stronger commitment to the idea that Marc Bruckner fell in love with a woman in a mans body
2) Stronger design elements (Set, Costumes)
3) More cohesive choreography
4) Being done in a smaller house, less than 1200 seats.
This production of On a clear day you can see forever closed on Broadway on January 31st 2012.
Perhaps someday we will see a successful (at least creatively) production of this show, but sadly this was not it.
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