©The Bergen Record
October 28, 2001


With all the seriousness of today's headlines, we could use a little silliness. And shows don't get much sillier than Red, Hot and Blue, says Bruce Adler.

"This is about convicts who are dying to get back into prison, and a guy who is looking for a girl who has a waffle burn on her behind," says Adler, a Fair Lawn resident, and one of the stars of the Paper Mill Playhouse production of Cole Porter's 1936 musical, which runs through Dec. 2 in Millburn.

The show, seldom revived now despite its great score ("It's Delovely," "Down in the Depths on the 90th Floor," "Ridin' High") harks back to an earlier and more innocent theater era in which farcical plots were little more than an excuse to showcase fabulous songs, huge production numbers, and great stars.

Ethel Merman, Jimmy Durante, and Bob Hope were the original leads (along with a then little-known comedienne, Vivian Vance). Here, Adler will be joined by Debbie Gravitte, Michael Gruber, Felicia Finley, and others. The book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, revised by Michael Leeds, includes a number of interpolated Porter hits like "Just One of Those Things," and "You Do Something to Me."

"It's a fun evening," says Adler, who plays con man Policy Pinkle. "It's one of those things where you check your brain at the door, see some terrific music and dancing, and you go home and forget your troubles."

That's just Adler's style. The son of Broadway actors Julius Adler and Henrietta Jacobson, he's an accomplished funnyman who was seen last year at Paper Mill in another Porter musical, Anything Goes (he was the sweetly incompetent gangster, Moonface Martin), and has appeared on Broadway in Crazy For You, Rumors and Sunday in the Park with George, among other shows. To the larger public, he may be remembered as the voice that sang "Arabian Nights," the controversial opening song of Disney's Aladdin.

This was the song that was censored after pressure groups objected to its lines that jokingly suggested the Middle East was not exactly a haven for human rights. "They'll cut off your nose if they don't like your face/It's barbaric, but hey, it's home."


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