Behind the Limelight — is just about a perfect template for a Broadway musical circa the 1960s, and that’s meant as a compliment. It celebrates without irony a mythic personality — in this case, Charlie Chaplin — with a script that deftly sketches characters and events and an ample, melodious score that helps move the story along. Build a few big production numbers around some songs and smooth the second act’s rough edges and it should be ready to go.
Granted, Anthony Newley did a Chaplin musical in 1983 that never made it to New York. But it would be nice to think that Broadway today might still have a stage available for this accomplished new effort, even with its traditional trappings.
The show, under Michael Unger’s artful direction, takes Chaplin from impoverished childhood in London to overwhelming success and philandering in Hollywood, capped by his expulsion from the country to spend his final days in domestic bliss with his last wife, Oona.