Reviews 2011
Reviews 2011
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music by Frederick Loewe, book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, directed by Gary Griffin
Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Festival Theatre, Stratford
May 31-October 30, 2011
“What Do the Simple Folk Do?”
The most fun to be had at Stratford’s new production of Camelot was when the audience stood up for the national anthem, as is the habit at openings, only to realize it was the musical’s overture. It then settled in for an evening that was well acted and very well sung but fantastically over-produced. Stratford’s last staging in 2000 on a the bare Festival stage now seems radically minimalist by comparison. No production by Toronto’s Opera Atelier, renowned for its gorgeous productions, is so heavily lavish as this Camelot, probably because the baroque opera company knows better how to balance the demands of drama and spectacle. Spectacle impedes drama because it attracts attention away from a focus on human interactions. The result, despite the best efforts of an excellent cast, as in this Camelot, is a series of nearly static, over-decorated tableaux.
An emphasis on spectacle only brings out the work’s inherent flaws. Based on T. H. White’s retelling of the entire King Arthur legend in The Once and Future King (1958), the musical is already episodic rather than tightly dramatic. The first half is taken up with Arthur’s relationship with his mentor Merlin, meeting with his queen Guenevere and his founding of the Round Table. The second half chronicles unrest in Camelot and the arrival of Arthur’s evil son Mordred. The real dramatic action, the trial of Guenevere and Arthur’s crisis of whether to uphold the rule of law by agreeing to her death sentence is all crammed into one narrative choral song. Director Gary Griffin exacerbates the problems of Act 2 by reinserting the Morgan le Fey scenes Alan Jay Lerner cut that bring what little momentum there is to a dead halt.
Besides this, Lerner’s book both wants to celebrate Camelot as “one brief shining moment” and to make fun of its medieval setting of Maytime “picnics” and knights in clanking armour defending damsels in distress. Monty Python’s Spamalot does such a thorough job of satirizing the same material that Lerner’s attempts look timid. At the same time his attempts at poetic grandeur come off as alternately bombastic or twee.
It’s for these reasons that the most successful productions of Camelot, like Stratford’s in 2000, emphasize the human drama over spectacle. Even if Griffin chooses the latter, it doesn’t need to be so totally over the top. As happened in Stratford’s 2003 production of The King and I, Debra Hanson’s sets compete for attention with the costumes and are distracting in themselves. Her floor is patterned after the ornamentation in The Book of Kells and features a revolve that is used only occasionally to move a metalwork tree back and forth. She has carved wooden panels in the balconies, a decorated panel that runs across both balconies, ornate peacocks in the the metalwork grilles to the central opening, tapestry-patterned drops for Arthur’s throne room, bizarre cone-shaped enclosed candelabras that are unnecessary and huge macramé palm trees (!) for Morgan le Fey’s realm (also unnecessary). This mishmash of medieval styles makes it impossible to focus the action since its multiple patterns lead the eye all over the place.
As if this weren’t enough, Mara Blumenfeld’s costumes that mix medieval styles with pre-Raphaelite versions of mediaevalism, are all in individualized brocades or multiply patterned gold embroidery. Individually, each costume is quite beautiful, but together they are simply too much. Put all the multiple patterns of the costumes against the multiple patterns of the sets and visual overload sets in since there is no point of relief and no place to focus. Guenevere herself is given a new costume for her every entrance, including not one, but two penitential robes--one for being led to execution and one for joining a convent. She certainly has a deeply ingrained fashion sense if it extends to choosing what type of hair-shirt is more appropriate for prayer or for being being burnt.
The actors struggle against this profusion of colour and ornament. Geraint Wyn Davies is much more in his element as Arthur than he was as Falstaff. He skillfully charts Arthur’s development from boyish innocence to rueful maturity. He spouted all the tosh of Lerner’s purple prose as if it were Shakespeare, seeming to say, “This may be nonsense but I believe every word of it!” As he showed as Higgins in My Fair Lady in 2002, he has perfectly mastered the talking-to-music style the role requires, although he was noticeably hoarse by the end of the show. As Lancelot, Jonathan Winsby is a real find. He has a strong heroic baritone ideal for Loewe’s famous songs and commanding in speech. He successfully downplayed Lancelot’s comic vanity and highlighted his sincerity to make him an unusually sympathetic figure.
Kaylee Harwood’s performance as Guenevere is quite bizarre. It is as if Griffin forced the London, Ont., native to imitate Julie Andrews on the 1961 cast recording until her own natural manner of speech and singing vanished and was replaced by Julie’s. Griffin’s maniacal quest for Andrews‘ sound forgets that Andrew’s prissy RP accent is something that only she could make work for her. The result is that although Harwood has a lovely operetta-like soprano, she seems like an automaton programmed to impersonate someone else. Since no one else in the show speaks in RP, the artifice prevents us from believing anything she says. The human drama is fragile enough in this production, but despite what the characters profess, we feel no strong bonds among these three central figures.
In other roles Brent Carver’s Merlyn is very like his Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings musical. He also plays the comically doddering Sir Pellinore, but Carver makes him so much like Merlyn I thought Griffin intended Pellinore as Merlyn’s reincarnation. As the nymph Nimue, Monique Lund gives a beautiful rendition of the seductive “Follow Me”. Lucy Peacock has a hilarious turn as the dissolute Morgan le Fey in her otherwise unnecessary scenes. Sounding and acting like Alan Cummings, Mike Nadajewski injects much-needed energy into the show as the malevolent Mordred. Dan Chameroy, Aaron Walpole and Sandy Winsby offer such well-differentiated knights as Sirs Dinadan, Lionel and Sagramore, it was too bad Griffin cut their witty song with Guenevere, “Then You May Take Me To the Fair”. Young Jimmy Mallett displays strong acting talent as Tom of Warwick that gives hope for the future in more ways than one.
Those who love musicals mostly for their sets and costumes can gorge themselves to discomfort with this show. Those who love musicals for their storytelling and emotion will have to work hard to connect with the characters in this slow-moving pageant. Musically, the show is on a very high level though the lushness of Loewe’s score would be much more effective in an open pit just as the drama would be much more effective if not suffocated by excess.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Geraint Wyn Davies with members of the company. ©2011 David Hou.
For Tickets, visit www.stratfordfestival.ca.
2011-06-01
Camelot