| "Lolita, My Love" last night at the York | |
| Last Edit: Marlo*Manners 02:51 pm EST 02/28/19 | |
| Posted by: Marlo*Manners 02:01 pm EST 02/28/19 | |
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| Musicals in Mufti did a remarkable job with Alan Jay Lerner and John Barry's notorious 1971 flop that never made it to New York. Last night's show was distinguished by the presence of four members of the "John Barry Appreciation Society" who flew in from England to see the show. Also present was Dan Siretta who was the third choreographer assigned to the show after Jack Cole never showed up and Danny Daniels quit when Tito Capobianco was fired as director. There was a talk back afterwards where most of the cast stayed to discuss the show. John Barry's score is really excellent though there are some workaday transitional pieces. But songs like "Sur les quais", "In the Broken Promise Land of 15", "Farewell, Little Dream" and "Going, Going, Gone" are better than 99% of what is passing for new musical theater songs today. Erik Haagensen worked from 6 versions of Alan Jay Lerner's book including revisions after the show closed in Philadelphia intended for the Broadway premiere that never happened. Haagensen edited a sharp tight book that didn't use any outside material - only Lerner. One thing Haagensen restored was the addition of Dr. Ray - a prison appointed psychiatrist who is interviewing Humbert. The role was never in any iteration of the show and was originally meant for a male actor to provide the framing device for the show. However, he changed the character from a man to a woman Dr. June Ray played by a fine actress of color Thursday Farrar. Dr. Ray acts as the moral guide for the audience and demands the real story from the dissembling, manipulative and unreliable narrator Humbert Humbert. Deniz Cordell put together the piano score (which is lost and unpublished including Eddie Sauter's magnificent orchestrations) from wildly discordant and confusing published sheet music of individual songs, demo recordings and live recordings of the show done in Boston and Philly. The show was directed by Emily Maltby who did amazing things with limited budget, resources and rehearsal time. Dan Siretta effusively praised Maltby's handling of the show and wished she had been around in 1971 when everyone was on a different page. The cast was led by two perfectly cast leads - Robert Sella as Humbert Humbert and Caitlin Cohn as Lolita. Sella is smarmy, attractive, charming and repellent but also brings real vulnerability and pathos to Humbert's obsession with Lolita. Besides being a fine, nuanced actor with wit and style, Sella can also really sing well and Humbert has several gorgeous ballads like "Tell Me". Lolita is a problem role for the creators and the audience. Lolita is seen in the novel through the gaze of Humbert Humbert and the female director did her best to give Lolita more of her own voice in the story. Tiny, small-boned Caitlin Cohn is in her early twenties but looks ten years younger than her age. In Lerner's book, Lolita often acts like a spoiled, petulant adolescent - rebellious, sarcastic and tiresome. Maltby directs the scenes as relayed through Humbert on three levels. Sometimes we get the truth of what really went down, we get Humbert's fantasy version of it and we get Dr. June Ray's take on it. So sometimes Cohn is a fantasy teen seductress and other times a troubled adolescent torn apart by Humbert's emotional needs which she can't understand or return. Cohn is up to anything that is thrown at her in a VERY difficult part. She seems innocent sometimes and alternately unaware and very aware of her sexual power. However, while Humbert has several good songs, Lolita has very little good music and some of it Cohn sang rather stridently. The original Lolita was 15 year-old Annette Ferra who was fired in Boston. She was replaced by 13 year old Denise Nickerson in Philadelphia who it seems was not a strong singer. So Lolita's songs are either declamatory yelly things like "All You Can Do Is Tell Me You Love Me" and "The Same Old Song" or the upbeat cute throwaway "Saturday". None of these songs are distinguished and none open up the inner life of the character like Humbert's and Charlotte's songs do. Jessica Tyler Wright is a fine singer and actress but she was too normal and refined as Charlotte Haze - there is nothing vulgar or blowzy or desperate about her. She seems like a pleasant, blonde suburban mom in sensible shoes and blue dress who sometimes is pushy. Wright, who appears in contemporary opera as well as musical theater, has a good soprano voice but you need a more characterful performer. Wright also isn't a comedienne like Loudon and missed opportunities for humor. Someone like KT Sullivan, Leslie Kritzer or Emily Skinner might score in the role if say Encores did it. George Abud was fun and loose as Clare Quilty, Humbert's nemesis. Thursday Farrar's facial expressions as she listens with fascination and disgust at Humbert's story and her probing inquiries into what really happened added a lot to mitigate the repellent aspects of the story. The second act didn't really fall apart after Charlotte Haze dies the way it supposedly did in the original production. Act I is stronger musically but the story kept moving. Frankly, I think that there is an audience for this show now and the score is strong. The book needs more cutting (the show was 2 hours and 45 minutes with one intermission and the show started at a quarter after 7 pm - fifteen minutes late). Seriously consider seeing this show this weekend. It is fascinating. Kudos to everyone involved for putting such difficult, lost material together so well with 30 hours rehearsal in less than a week. Marlo Manners (Lady Barrington) |
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| Link | Lolita, My Love at the York |
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