Austin Tracy

Theater review by Austin Tracy  Santino Fontana plays Harry Bogen, the central character in Classic Stage Company’s revival of I Can Get It For You Wholesale, and you won’t want to take your eyes off of him—because Fontana is giving a charismatic and nuanced performance, but also because Harry is not to be trusted. A well-intentioned dreamer at first, he slowly devolves into a snake-oil salesman who is willing to spend anything and sell out anyone to make it to the top. The golden patina of his rags-to-riches success in New York City’s garment industry is peeled away to reveal a rotten core. “What money makes, money takes away” is the key lyric in this 1962 musical, which has a score by Harold Rome and a book by Jerome Weidman—whose son, John, has revised it for director Trip Cullman’s charming and haunting revival at Classic Stage Company. Since the younger Weidman is best known for his unsentimental collaborations with Stephen Sondheim, including Assassins, it should come as no surprise that the production doubles down on the darker side of the show, leading us on a journey through the world of business and the monsters who inhabit it. I Can Get It for You Wholesale | Photograph: Courtesy Julieta Cervantes Although Fontana masterfully makes you love to hate him, Adam Chanler-Berat and Sarah Steele keep hope alive as Harry’s partner and his optimistic wife, an adorably sweet pair. And the show makes room for first-rate turns by the actors playing the various women in Harry'