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music, lyrics and book by Michael John LaChiusa,

directed by Michelle Ouellet

Hello Again Collective, Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace, Toronto

June 8-July 1, 2006

A group of recent Sheridan College graduates have gathered together to present the Canadian premiere of Michael John LaChiusa’s Hello Again.  LaChiusa, one of a group of highly regarded post-Sondheim composers, has based this 1994 chamber musical on Arthur Schnitzler’s infamous 1897 play La Ronde consisting of a sequence of ten sexual liaisons, with each partner participating in two couplings.  LaChiusa has altered Schnitzler’s scheme by setting each pairing in a different decade of the 20th century, though not in chronological order, and by added two gay hook-ups.  His music, though not quite hummable, is witty, complex and intensely dramatic.

The cast is uneven and few can fully meet LaChiusa’s vocal demands.  Among the best is Graham Coffeng as the Soldier, a singer with real presence and an exciting dancer.  Zoë Sweet as the Young Wife having an affair with a student is adept at comedy and gives an excellent performance of “Tom,” one of the show’s best songs.  Greg Campbell proves a fine actor/singer as the duplicitous Husband, and Whitney Barris displays her strong voice not only as the lusty Nurse but as an opera singer and Madonna.  Despite its flaws, Michelle Ouellet’s cleverly staged production should be welcomed for introducing Toronto, at last, to this exciting new voice on the American scene.    

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2006-06-15.

Photo: Graham Coffeng.