‘Days of Wine and Roses’ Broadway Review: Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James Fire Up a Truly Great Musical

Musical theater lightning strikes twice with Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel’s long-awaited follow-up to “The Light in the Piazza”

A man and a woman with light-toned skin on stage, the man in a shirt and dress pants, the woman in a light pink dress with twirly skirt. The background blends from a bright yet deep red to a blue lower down, with a table also in the background. The couple holds hands, appearing ecstatic and as if they are joining in a dance.
Brian d'Arcy James and Kelli O'Hara in "Days of Wine and Roses" (Photo by Joan Marcus)

The most wonderful thing about Adam Guettel’s “Days of Wine and Roses” score is that no one will walk out of the theater humming the songs. His new musical sounds like nothing else in the theater — unless you go back to this songwriter’s previous shows, “Floyd Collins” (1996) and “The Light in the Piazza” (2003), which also features a book by Craig Lucas.

Delivering another smart adaptation, Lucas here uses the 1958 teleplay and 1963 movie “Days of Wine and Roses” as his source material, where the original characters don’t really have any reason to sing. Through sheer dint of his enormous talent, Guettel makes those two chronic alcoholics sing for their life in the new stage production that opened Sunday on Broadway at Studio 54 after its world premiere last year at the off-Broadway Atlantic Theater.

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