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by Kurt Weill, directed by Guillermo Silva-Marin

Toronto Operetta Theatre, Jane Mallett Theatre, Toronto

February 17-19, 2006

"Elizabeth Beeler Lights Up the Dark"

Toronto audiences owe the Toronto Operetta Theatre a major debt of thanks for staging the Canadian premiere of Kurt Weill’s legendary musical “Lady in the Dark” (1941) and doing so in such an elegant, inventive production.  By focussing on the characters and their relationships and by taking them seriously, director Guillermo Silva-Marin gets right to the heart of this groundbreaking musical and makes us see it for the fascinating work is. 

“Lady in the Dark”, with a book by Moss Hart and lyrics by Ira Gershwin, tells the tale of Liza Elliott, the successful editor of the women’s fashion magazine “Allure”.  She has been having an affair with a married man, Kendall Nesbit, the magazine’s founder, and is being romantically pursued by matinee idol Randy Curtis.  Lately, though, she has been feeling miserable and after lobbing a paperweight at co-worker Charley Johnson, she realizes she is losing control and seeks help from psychoanalyst Dr. Brooks.  Liza insists her problems have nothing to do with these men but are related to a song she can’t get out of her mind.  Brooks assures her the answer lies in her subconscious mind and asks to relate the vivid dreams she has been having.

“Lady in the Dark” was an experimental work in 1941 and still is today.  Rather than alternating dialogue with separate musical numbers, “Lady in the Dark” groups all the music into four discreet, extended sections representing Liza’s dreams.  Ordinary speech thus represents the waking state and music the subconscious.  There are plusses and minuses in this radical structure.  On the plus side, the world of dreams gives Weill and Gershwin an immense freedom to expand the boundaries of what popular music can do.  Together they achieve a complexity that really is not seen again in musicals until Sondheim greatest works.  On the minus side, the sections of Hart’s dialogue are much longer than usual and, given the imaginative exuberance of the dream sequences, inevitably, pale in comparison.  The musical may thus be inherently flawed, but flawed in such an interesting way that it does not deserve the production limbo into which it has fallen. 

Above all the show provides a showcase for an accomplished singer-actress in the demanding role of Liza.  Elizabeth Beeler is simply wonderful.  She achieves the difficult task of making Liza vulnerable enough so that we can believe she would seek help and be shaken by its revelations, yet tough enough that so that we can believe she is a success in the competitive, male-dominated world of magazine editing.  Beeler gives Liza such a winning personality that her performance alone creates the strong throughline the musical needs to link the spoken sections with the musical sequences.  She is sassy and sophisticated in the great song “One Life to Live”, she makes the long narrative “The Princess of Pure Delight” a pure delight and gives a knockout performance of “The Saga of Jenny”.  At the preview I attended this last deservedly received the loudest and longest round of applause for a single song that I’ve heard in years of attending TOT productions.

Of the other cast members only Thom Allison in the Danny Kaye role of gay fashion photographer Russell Paxton is equally adept at commanding the stage in both the spoken and sung sections of the work.  He has such presence and poise the energy level on stage noticeably increases whenever he appears.  He rattled off the tongue-twisting patter song “Tschaikowsky” (made up solely of the names of fifty Russian composers) as if were the easiest thing in the world.

Fred Love gives a fine performance of “This Is New”, but needs to rev up a notch his portrayal of movie star Randy Curtis.  He does show the ordinary guy beneath the Hollywood image, but needs to project that image more strongly.  Curtis Sullivan has to wait until the very end to show off his fine baritone.  In the meantime his portrayal of Charley Johnson comes off more like a Western ranch-hand than a New York advertising manager.  Stuart Graham is a fine singer but this musical requires a stronger actor in the role of Kendall Nesbitt.  Sean Curran makes a good impression the non-singing role of Dr. Brooks by sounding professional and authoritative while avoiding the clichés that often attend stage portrayals of doctors.  Peter Buzny has a good cameo as Ben, a boy Liza knew in high school who turns his attention to Liza only because he’s miffed at his real girlfriend.  Rosalind McArthur shows real comic flair as Liza’s tough-talking assistant administrator Maggie, but should choose one accent and stick with it.

In his director’s note, Guillermo Silva-Marin states that the TOT does not have the resources to present the dream sequences with full production values.  It’s true that with its fashion magazine setting and four dream worlds to present that the show could easily eat up a large budget.  It also could easily become a show about production values rather than about the story.  In fact, the TOT’s limited budget has the advantage of keeping our focus on the story.  Silva-Marin as designer creates through a few well-chosen design features a black-and-white Art Deco world that recalls big city films from the 1930s and’40s.  Colour makes an appearance only in selected gowns Liza wears, most notably the stylish blue gown of the “Glamour Dream” whose colour symbolism vis-à-vis Liza is not revealed until the end.  Silva-Marin signals the dream sequences through stylized movement simple additions (or subtractions) to the ensemble’s wardrobe and subtle changes in lighting.  Given the major role music plays in marking the difference between reality and dream, we really need no more than these minimal visual cues.

One of the joys of the evening is hearing the work as it would have sounded in 1941--unmiked and in his original orchestration for 13-piece band including three trumpets and trombone.  Under conductor Jeffrey Huard the band produces a gorgeous sound and revels in Weill’s complex rhythms and rich, piquant sonorities.  The Entr’acte with its impression of a jazz band jamming is particularly impressive as is the dazzling Circus Dream sequence with its references to Sullivan and Prokofiev.  The TOT chorus, many of whom had small individual parts, sings gloriously throughout.   

 

Even if sections of dialogue do not always come off as well as they might, one leaves feeling privileged finally to have seen this famous work and lucky that Toronto has a company like the TOT willing to take on the challenge of presenting it.  I, for one, would gladly see it again especially with the marvellous Ms. Beeler in the title role.   

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photo: Thom Allison and Elizabeth Beeler. ©Gabriel Prioste.