 Lorenz Hart |
FESTIVAL REVIEWTime After Time- page 3 |
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OFAM stages Rodgers and Hart's Connecticut Yankee
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JIM RALPH —executive director of OFAM — likes to bring music to his festival that has been under-performed or not performed at all. This year he staged a musical whose obscurity is almost criminal —Rodgers and Hart’s A Connecticut Yankee.
Based on Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, the musical first ran on Broadway in 1927. Revived in 1943 with new material and songs, the reworked production turned out to be Rodgers and Hart’s last collaboration, and one of their finest. Other than a concert version staged in New York in 2002, the show has disappeared. This production of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court , then, was especially noteworthy.
The plot is zany and ingenious: A smooth- talking hipster, about to married, is punched by a former flame and awakes in the time of King Arthur. We recognize characters from the present transformed to knights and ladies in his dream – a plot within a plot, playing upon itself. The story unfolds by mixing language, styles, and ideas from the two eras, a dramatic setup perfect for Hart’s imagination and wit. The songs from the show are among the finest, funniest and most sophisticated creations that he and Rodgers penned.
Patrick Torelle
Staged at Jaqua Hall, a midsize and intimate space, “Yankee’s” sophistication was captured miraculously by mostly amateurs and a few veterans. Patrick Torelle played the role of Merlin the Magician, or “Moylen” as he calls himself in Brooklynese. Torrell has a sturdy professional background, including training at the Lee Strasberg Institute in Los Angeles. His Merlin was neither clown or buffoon, but a somewhat dazed and earnest charlatan.
Good character actors don’t go “over the top.” Count Torelle among them. I’ve seen him in several roles, each realized without gimmicks or histrionics. His professionalism brought a stabilizing energy to the entire production.Torelle heads the drama department at the local community college, a lucky happenstance for the local theater community.
Siri Vik
Siri Vik played Morgan le Fey, the over sexed queen. The character sings the show- stopper number, To Keep My Love Alive. Vik played the character with ultra camp, almost channeling Bette Midler, it seemed. I wish she’d dialed the character back a bit, which would have given more room at important moments for knockout punches. Vik has an interesting background, ranging from classical music and theater to cabaret. A renowned interpreter of Kurt Weill, she won the Lotte Lenya Competition in 2003. Vik performs a cabaret evening during OFAM’s winter schedule.
Chas King
The greatest hipster at this court, however, was lyricist Lorenz Hart. Funny and touching, floating seemlessly from sly poetics to decadent vernacular, Hart’s words dance along Rodger’s notes with a brilliance that raises polished craft to soaring genius.
I’ll pack each little thing for thee.
-On A Desert Island With Thee
What ten books shall I bring for thee?
We’ll need some books to read
Thou needst not bring ten books along.
If thou wilt bring thy looks along,
‘Twill be enough for me.
If the heat begins to swelter,
We won’t have to fear the sun.
We will lie beneath a shelter
Only big enough for one.
Let the prudish people quarrel
We’ll forget them for the nonce.
If they think our love immoral,
“Honi soit qui mal y pense.”
I’ll dress the way that Adam did.
And I the way his madam did
I’ll see enough of thee!
Honi soit qui mal y pense ? Jim Ralph — who had insisted that all the original lyrics and dialogue (however obscure) be kept in the play— tells me the phrase means “shame on him who thinks evil of it.” The words were also the motto of the English Order of the Garter, which made the Latin quip doubly funny in a sexy interchange in which a knight makes some moves on his lady. Funny stuff when explained. But Latin quips were no affectation for Hart, who was educated at Columbia University. They were Ivy League authenticity.
Leah Reis-Dennis
Two young voices in the cast —Leah Reis-Dennis and Annie Rose Favreau—were special. Reis -Dennis’s voice –which cuts through the air but stays sweet -is the kind of voice that, in the days before mic’d shows, made the Broadway Musical possible. Solid, in tune, and distinctly professional, Reis-Dennis would make the first cut at musical theater auditions on voice alone.. Although her role of Evelyn in “Yankee” is relatively small, there was enough to suggest considerable acting talent, too. Her onstage presence was natural and unforced, and her acting was energized by the back-and-forth connection with the audience. Reis-Dennis, by the way, is unsure about a career in the theater.
Annie Rose Favreau
LISTEN: Annie Rose Favreau and Chas King sing an excerpt from My Heart Stood Still
Naturalness is hard to come by in musical theater, a genre so infused with artifice and disbelief. But director Judith Roberts and choreographer Laura Hiszczynskyj staged the show with tasteful unfussiness. It’s a complex piece of theater with many opportunities to go astray. Had it been overcooked with too much “business,” the production would have lost its compelling charm.
Music director Vicky Brabham brought off a complex score under more than a few difficulties. Not only did she deal with many amateurs, but Jaqua Hall has no pit, so she conducted music played above the stage behind a screen.
Judith Roberts
Based on the production, I shouldn’t have been surprised by Robert’s background. Her theater training is rooted in “The Method” – the tradition of naturalism in an actor’s motivation in performance. Robert’s mentor was the famous method Shakespearean Morris Carnovsky (1897-1992)— whose work I knew well. Robert’s background explained the easy going and organic sense of the play, unencumbered by too many gestures and shtick. Roberts directs in many genres. Teaching at the local community college, she maintains artistic contacts with American playwrights and mounts their works in Eugene.
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