BRAVO GIOVANNI A Musical Comedy in 2 Acts, 22 Scenes. Book by A. J. Russell. Based on the novel ("The Crime of Giovanni Venturi") by Howard Shaw. Music by Milton Schafer. Lyrics by Ronny Graham. Broadhurst Theatre, New York: Opened 19 May, 1962 closing for vacation 14 July, 1962; re-opened 7 September 1962, and closed 15 September, 1962 after 76 performances. STORY ACT I Rome at noon. At the Trevi fountain, Lombards in snappy Lancias and Sicilians on Vespas whiz by while Rome's famed cats nap in warm Italian sunshine. The bright Overture suggests all the color, all that is vital and volatile in the great city. In one of the hundreds of little piazzas with their old-world charm, tan, handsome Giovanni Venturi in his waiter's apron, readies the sidewalk tables of his modest trattoria for his daily customers. He bursts into a happy tribute to Rome, "this wonderful, fabulous place," while lovers arm in arm, titian-haired beauties and bustling priests in black cassocks stroll through the piazza - and a nun zips by on a bicycle. Suddenly, into the square comes a small brass band, led by the imposing, portly Bellardi. They stop before a store just down the street from Giovanni's. The front of the building is hidden by bunting and flags. Alas, these are to prove a veil of tears for Giovanni. After a dedication speech by Bellardi, beginning "Friends, Romans, turisti" the draperies are removed revealing a razzle-dazzle façade of plate glass and chrome. It is a new branch of Uriti, a mass-production restaurant chain, and Signor Bellardi is its proud manager. Waiters appear dressed as ancient Romans complete with leather thongs on their bare legs and gilded laurel wreaths on their heads. All join in singing Uriti, proclaiming such gustatory delights as instant minestrone, tortoni in twenty-nine flavours, Manischewitz '59 and today's special, chicken chow mein. The taste in food is matched only by the quiet taste of the decor—a wall-to-wall Norman Rockwell mural, a bust of Dante gushing cafe espresso from his mouth and rest room booths which are perfect copies of the Arch of Constantine. Giovanni soon discovers that his pasta and formaggio are no match for formica and plastic; his customers desert him for his rival. Within three weeks, Giovanni is ruined. By cutting prices, Uriti has put him out of business as it has its competitors all over Italy. In the shabby but charming interior of his trattoria, he haggles with a secondhand dealer for the furnishings. In the midst of negotiations appears Amadeo, a grizzled but Puckish, bookseller from next door. He has a brilliant plan to save his friend Giovanni. He has nearly ruined his digestion by eating regularly such "Italian" delicacies as egg foo-yong at Uriti while studying the layout of the restaurant. Food is prepared in a downstairs kitchen and sent up to the dining room on a dumbwaiter. All Giovanni has to do is dig a tunnel from his own basement, under Amadeo's bookstore and the house of the elderly widow Pandolfi to a point below the Uriti kitchen and build a downward extension of Uriti's dumbwaiter. This engineering project will be governed by that simple and undeservedly obscure principle, Breachy's Law, "What goes up can also come down." In thoughtful anticipation, Amadeo has got his cousin Carlo the job of operating the dumbwaiter and has sent to the country for his niece Miranda to bring the food through the tunnel to Giovanni's. Imagine the saving in costs: no more food and wine for Giovanni to buy! All his dinner orders will be filled from Uriti's kitchen! Giovanni's misgivings concerning lasagna larceny are real —but brief. The two drink to Breachy's Law.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODU3MzQ=