Reviews 2004
Reviews 2004
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music by Richard Rodgers, book and lyrics by Lorenz Hart, directed by Alisa Palmer
Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
May 28-October 30, 2004
"Bewitched, Not Bothered or Bewildered"
Richard Rodgers’ collaborations with Oscar Hammerstein II are so familiar--“South Pacific”, “Carousel”, “The King and I”, “The Sound of Music”--it is good to see a major theatre company like the Shaw Festival revive one of Rodgers’ ventures with his regular pre-Hammerstein collaborator, Lorenz Hart. The Shaw Festival gives “Pal Joey” (1940), their final work together, a super production with a top-notch cast that helps sail over the holes in the plot.
“Pal Joey” is important in the history of the American musical because of its deviations from the genre’s standard form. It is a rags-to-riches-to-rags story where getting into show business does not solve the title character’s problems. It is not a boy-gets-girl love story but is rather about an older woman who snares a younger man and then drops him when he proves inconvenient. Years before Sondheim it is a musical with no truly likeable characters. And, as Andrea Most’s useful programme note makes clear, it is a musical that points to the aspects of deception and wish-fulfillment in musical theatre more than celebrating the genre.
Add to this Rodgers’ highly varied score and Hart’s naughtily witty lyrics and you have a fascinating musical. The inescapable problem, however, is the book by John O’Hara. Three-fourths of the story move along well. We meet inveterate liar and womanizer Joey Evans, a New Yorker trying to make a new start in Chicago as a nightclub emcee. His chutzpah attracts the attention of wealthy, married society queen Vera Simpson, who takes Joey on as her lover and sets him up in his own club. Joey settles in with her despite having met Linda English, a nice but naïve “good” girl who likes him.
The show would be much more satisfying if O’Hara had allowed the internal dynamics of this triangle to work itself out on its own. Unfortunately, he feels it necessary to introduce a con-man, Ludlow Lowell, who convinces Joey he needs him as his agent. That Joey falls for this when he already has his own club and a patron makes no sense. Then with aid of chorus girl Gladys Bumps, who has previously shown no malice, Lowell arranges a complex three-way blackmail scheme. The fact that it fails as soon as it’s set in motion makes one wonder why O’Hara thought the plot device a good idea.
There’s no way to smooth over this flurry of unnecessary plot developments except by presenting the show with as much verve as possible. And that’s exactly what the Shaw Festival cast does. Adam Brazier, best known as the creator of the hunky love-interest Sky in the Toronto “Mamma Mia!”, is an ideal choice as Joey. His good looks and fine voice make Joey believable as someone who has coasted through life on his charm. Brazier also captures an underlying innocence in this seemingly amoral character, essential if the audience is to have any interest in him or his story.
Laurie Paton is smashing as Vera Simpson. Her powerful, seductive voice with looks to match make one wonder why she has appeared in so few musicals. The lucky few who saw her as Sally Bowles in “Cabaret” at the Grand Theatre in 1998, are in for an even bigger treat here. She delivers the show’s biggest hit, “Bewitched” with power and nuance, fully alive to the mixture of pleasure and irony of Vera’s situation. As Vera should, Paton commands the stage whenever she appears.
In contrast, Shannon McCaig goes perhaps too far in making Linda meek and mousy. Given her clear voice and the passion she brings to the show’s other well-known hit “I Could Write a Book”, she should show us earlier on that Linda is as plucky as she is humble. Neil Barclay does his best to make the unbelievable character of Ludlow Lowell work on stage. He’s so funny and slick you almost forget he is the villain of the piece. Jenny L. Wright creates such a positive impression as the lead chorus girl Gladys Bumps, it’s very hard to credit her character’s sudden turn to crime. Wright’s all-out rendition of “That Terrible Rainbow” is the first number of the evening to bring down the house.
In smaller roles Patty Jamieson does a spectacular turn as the gossip columnist Melba Snyder, who without motivation, launches into hilarious strip-tease song “Zip”. Mark Harapiak is a hoot as the vapid tenor Louis in the send-up of 1930s production numbers, “The Flower Garden of My Heart”. Lorne Kennedy is suitably tough but wise as the club-owner Mike Spears.
Alisa Palmer’s direction is smart and unfussy and effortless conjures up realistic interactions among the characters. Her attempt to animate the overture on stage doesn’t work and she finds no way to make the Lowell plot less artificial. But she wisely reinstates Joey’s final song “I’m Talking to My Pal”, cut during the Boston tryout, that puts the emphasis back on Joey who has so little to sing in Act 2. To have the curtain fall on Joey gazing at the handkerchief he lent Linda creates a nice sense of ambiguity at the close.
William Schmuck’s sets are both simple and clever and perfectly complemented by Andrea Lundy’s inventive lighting. His everyday costumes get the period just right and his gowns for Vera make Paton look fabulous. Yet he reserves his greatest flights of imagination for the many nightclub set-pieces. The silver lamé tunics and head-dresses, especially Wright’s, for “That Terrible Rainbow” seems straight from a Busby Berkeley musical. He outdoes himself later with the hilariously over-the-top flower outfits complete with trellises for “The Flower Garden of My Heart”. And his multiple breakaway costume for Jamieson in “Zip” is a masterpiece in itself.
Amy Wright’s choreography also gets the period right with a frothy mix of showdancing, ballroom and tap that turn lesser numbers like “Happy Hunting Horn”, featuring the acrobatic Sam Strasfeld, and “Do It the Hard Way“ into high-energy showstoppers.
Palmer’s direction doesn’t bring the show to that magic state of feeling like more than a sum of its parts, but those parts are so good that theatre-goers will be bowled over by the display of talent on stage. Let’s hope the Shaw delves into more from Rodgers and Hart in the future.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Laurie Paton and Adam Brazier. ©2004 Andrée Lanthier.
2004-08-08
Pal Joey