New Conservatory Theatre’s clear vision of ‘On a Clear Day’

Originally produced in 1965, “On a Clear Day” ran just eight months, despite a score by lyricist Alan Jay Lerner (“My Fair Lady”) and composer Burton Lane (“Finian’s Rainbow”). A 1970 movie starring Barbra Streisand fizzled and a 2011 Broadway revival that reconfigured the leading lady as a gay man was kicked to the curb after 57 humiliating performances. New York Times critic Ben Brantley savaged the revival, describing the show as having “the approximate fun quotient of a day in an MRI machine.” Decker saw the 2011 revival and felt there was unrealized potential in the story of David, a timid florist’s assistant who seeks out a psychoanalyst to quit smoking. Under hypnosis, one of David’s past lives, a vivacious 1940s jazz singer named Melinda, emerges. The New Conservatory production, which opens Saturday, May 21, and runs through June 12, uses the book Peter Parnell wrote for the 2011 revival, as well as the revival’s grab bag of Lerner-and-Lane tunes: some from the 1965 original “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” two written for the 1970 Streisand film and four songs interpolated from the 1948 Fred Astaire film “Royal Wedding.” Decker contacted Liza Lerner, the daughter of Alan Jay Lerner and lead producer of the revival, while it was still on Broadway. In recent telephone interviews, Lerner and Mayer both said the decision to open on Broadway was fatal. In the mid-’90s, he came up with the idea of turning Daisy Gamble into David — a twist, he believed, that would add dramatic tension and “a serious obstacle” to the story’s love triangle. In July 2010, a concert production of the reimagined “Clear Day” opened at the Powerhouse Theater in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in a collaboration between Vassar College and New York Stage and Film. With his matinee-idol looks and his success in a 2006 Broadway revival of “Pajama Game,” the producers believed Connick could draw a mainstream audience that would otherwise overlook “Clear Day.” Connick liked the idea of doing a quirky piece about reincarnation, time and the ineluctable mysteries of desire. Another problem, Lerner said, is that the analyst character isn’t really a starring role. To view highlights from the original Broadway production, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDQ5Y6kw-jc