Reviews 2008
Reviews 2008
✭✭✭✭✩
by Victor Davies & Eugene Benson,
directed by Guillermo Silva-Marin
Toronto Operetta Theatre, Jane Mallett Theatre, Toronto
February 22-24, 2008
"Serious Fun"
Toronto Operetta Theatre has a hit on its hands with “Earnest, the Importance of Being” by composer Victor Davies and librettist Eugene Benson. This is the first new operetta the TOT has ever commissioned and it is a resounding success. The TOT is presenting only three performances but one can imagine that other companies will be eager to present so entertaining a work.
As one might suspect from the title, the operetta is based on Oscar Wilde’s immortal comedy “The Importance of Being Earnest” of 1895. The creators altered the title so that ticket buyers would not be confused as whether they were seeing the play or the operetta. At first one might think it rather audacious to transform a play often called “the most perfect comedy in English” into an operetta, but then George Bernard Shaw’s “Arms and the Man” (1894) and “Pygmalion” (1913) were both musicalized to great success--the first by Oscar Straus as “The Chocolate Soldier” (1908) and the second by Lerner and Loewe as “My Fair Lady” (1956). “Earnest” is a very worthy effort, one that shows respect for its source and one that draws on a wide range of musical influences. In fact, the dialogue for “Earnest” is taken almost verbatim from the play itself and retains a remarkable number of everybody’s favourite lines.
Davies music qualifies as an operetta rather than a musical because it is written for classical trained, unamplified voices. As in most great operettas, the music is both memorably tuneful and makes allusions to works of other composers. When Lady Bracknell proclaims “We Are the Aristocracy” and brings the whole weight of her British heritage to bear, the music takes on the form of a “Pomp and Circumstance” march. When Gwendolen and Cecily compete to see who deserves more to marry “Earnest” Davies and Benson transform the tea-drinking scene in to a contest for duelling divas as with Jenny and Lucy, who both claim to be married to Mack, in “The Threepenny Opera”, except that here the voices can reach truly operatic heights. When Cecily learns she does not come of age until 35, her melodramatic scena becomes a riff of the quasi-operatic pretensions of Andrew Lloyd Webber. As in the best operettas humour is found not just in Benson’s witty lyrics but also in the music itself. Its very funny when Gwendolen and Cecily musically test “Earnest” and other names for their “vibrations” Nevertheless, there are serious songs. Algernon’s “How Do I Love You” has a lovely melody and Jack’s song near the end “Who Am I?” approaches in a serious way the underlying theme of the play.
The TOT could hardly have found a better cast, not only fine singers but also fine actors who could act the spoken play equally well. Laird Mackintosh, fresh from his successes at Stratford, is an ideal Algernon with just the right tone of mock seriousness in all her says or sings. He is well matched by Robert Longo’s warm-voiced Jack. Barbara Barsky is an imposing Lady Bracknell and Mia Lennox-Williams has such hauteur as Gwendolen that we can easily see that she will soon be just like her mother. Deanna Hendriks is a charming Cecily and more than able to cope with the imaginative flights of coloratura Davies gives her. Sean Curran as Lane, Heather Shaw as Miss Prism, Michael York as Canon Chasuble and Keith O’Brien as Merryman round out the cast.
TOT General Director Guillermo Silva-Marin has directed and designed the piece with flair and captured feel of the Edwardian age. Jeffrey Huard conducts the eleven-piece TOT Orchestra with precision and élan, though some of Davies’ more sweeping melodies could benefit from larger forces. At the single preview I attended the work was received with great enthusiasm. If the show had had a longer run I certainly would have returned with a group of friends so they could enjoy it, too. Let’s hope the TOT bring back this new “Earnest” soon. Such a delightful work deserves greater exposure.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Deanna Hendriks, Laird McIntosh, Robert Longo, Mia Lennox-Williams.
©Gilberto Prioste.
2008-02-19
Earnest, The Importance of Being