I am constantly amazed when people tell me that their favorite musical of all-time is Rent or Wicked. And these are people who will vigorously debate the emotional impact of the contemporary pieces in the latest MCA exhibit or who will be eager to sit through and dissect a multi-hour molecular gastronomy meal. But whenever it comes to musical theater, many people, regardless of how worldly, highly-educated, sophisticated-seeming they are, seem to have let their taste get lost somewhere within the Tri-state tollway system. Choosing Rent or Wicked, with their least-common denominator pop scores, over the many glorious classics of the American musical theater? Head-scratching. So I can empathize with the great difficulties that theaters and artistic directors face in getting the great musicals of the 1940s and 1950s, the golden age of musical theater on Broadway, embraced and enjoyed by an audience who would rather have a colonics session than hear Gershwin, or Rodgers and Hammerstein, or Porter, or Bernstein, performed in all their glory. American Theater Company and the Court Theater recently put on minimalist, stripped-down, plain-speaking productions of Oklahoma! and Carousel respectively, and they were both critical and box-office successes. And now it’s Porchlight Theater’s turn - it is currently staging a no-frills, sparingly re-envisioned production of Leonard Bernstein’s classic, Candide, which possesses one of the most gorgeous scores in the musical theater canon. Although highly entertaining and accessible, guaranteed to make even the most stoic non-musical lover humming “Glitter and Be Gay”, and, as a bonus, marvelously raunchy, Porchlight’s Candide could have been dazzling with an over the top, pull-out-all-the-stops staging.
Based on Voltaire’s classic story, Bernstein intended Candide to be a spoof of the conventions and narratives of traditional opera. So the story is quite the heady cocktail of craziness: Candide, the idealistic youthful hero continues to hold on to his optimism despite being kidnapped, left for dead, nearly hung by the Grand Conquistador, hijacked by pirates, shipwrecked, and having to witness his beloved virginal Cunegonde become a high-class whore. Throw into the mix a bawdy old woman with only one buttock, the Jesuits, magical sheep, and it’s quite the incredulous smorgasboard. Director Walter Stearns has done away with any set design, and has turned the theater into a collection of performance stages with the six person orchestra located in a giant pit in the middle, and the audience seated on all four sides. Most of the lighting design is also warm and bright, instead of evocative and emotional. It’s an interesting concept - instead of seeing a musical with sets framed by the traditional proscenium, which may emphasize the corniness, theatricality, and outrageousness of the material, and thus turn off some audience members, you are essentially being swamped by a frenetic, knee-slapping cabaret going on all around you. The staging makes the production more accessible, more non-threatening to the non-musical lover, uhmmm, more hip and of-the-moment, more Wicked, yes, than The Sound of Music. And that’s ok. We gotta do what we gotta do to get Bernstein’s wonderful songs heard and known by new audiences. Part of me, though, would have wanted to be blown away by a production with a grander, yes, more operatic, visual style, because the Bernstein score deserves no less. Glitter can be gayer…and more fun!
Regardless of my misgivings about the conceptual staging, the performers and the musicians are exceptional, up to the usual Porchlight high standards. Two of Chicago’s rising musical theater leading men turn in fantastic, memorable performances. Ryan Lanning, who has been consistently great in the shows I’ve seen him in, gives Candide that right mix of gullibility and intelligent optimism. He also has a phenomenal voice, wonderfully leading the ensemble in the classic “Make Our Garden Grow”. Jeremy Rill, who was just brilliant as the Devil in last year’s Jerry Springer: the Opera (and deservedly won a Jeff Award for it), continues to display his comedic chops and his entrancing vocal talents as the narcissistic, air-headed Prince Maximilian, Cunegonde’s brother. Kristen Freilich, as the Old Lady (with the one buttock) is excellent and brings the house down with the dirty ditty, “I am Easily Assimilated”. The other show-stopping moment of the evening, aside from Freilich’s lusty performance, is to be expected, Cunegonde’s belting (or trilling) of “Glitter and Be Gay”. And newcomer Caitlin Collins does not disappoint. She has a strong, vigorous soprano, and impeccable comic timing, sort of like a singing Tina Fey in a blonde wig. The rest of the ensemble is very good as well, and I think the staging of the ensemble number “Auto Da Fe” as a tailgate party for the Inquisition (!) is inspired. The orchestra very gamely play straight man/woman, props assistants, and “crowd extras” for the cast, but still give Bernstein’s score their all. I do have to say, though, that it is very distracting to have the orchestra in the middle of the theater, in full view of everyone, if the percussionist is cuter than a button on an American Girl doll outfit! Bernstein, I love ya, but that boy could be playing Motley Crue and I’d still be watching!
Candide continues at the Theater Building, 1225 W. Belmont, until November 2.
Tags: Porchlight Theater
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