Theatre: The Light in the Piazza
Theatre in New York was a lot of fun. Day one in New York was the chance to see The Light in the Piazza at the Lincoln Centre. It was a big winner at last year's Tony awards. It didn't win best new musical (that went to the Monty Python show Spamalot) but the production, music is so good that the punters have still been coming to it one year on.
Actually last year was a good year for musical theatre on Broadway as all four new musicals that were nominated for best musical are still playing. This contrasts starkly with the mostly crap they served up this year. I was only in New York for a few days and several plays and musicals closed while I was there (including West End transfer Festen and another vampire musical bomb, Lestat).
Piazza was still playing with Victoria Clark in the lead. Clark won the best actress Tony for her role in this. The show takes place in Italy in the summer of 1953. Margaret Johnson (Clark), the wife of an American businessman, is touring Italy with her daughter, Clara. While sightseeing, Clara loses her hat in a sudden gust. The hat lands at the feet of Fabrizio Naccarelli (now played by Aaron Lazar who I last saw in On the Town with the ENO last year), an appropriately handsome Florentine, who returns it to Clara. This brief episode, charged with coincidence and fate, sparks an immediate and intense romance between Clara and Fabrizio and lots of fabulous soaring melodies. There is a plot twist in that Clara is a little bit intellectually challenged but nobody finds out that until the second act. Besides, none of this should get in the way of a good musical...
To say that the music in this show is amazing is really to sell it short. Adam Guettel (grandson of Richard Rodgers) has composed a fantastic piece of musical theatre that is destined to become a modern classic. The soundtrack has become a best seller and hopefully other artists will record some of the music soon (iTunes sells it with bonus tracks performed by Guettel as well).
As for the rest of the show, I wasn't so thrilled by the book which panders a little too much to the inward-looking perspective of American audiences (such as attitudes to foreigners etc) but these were really minor issues. Maybe there is too much comedy and not enough character development but when has musical theatre ever made logic? Kelli O'Hara who originated the role of Clara has gone onto bigger things (The Pajama Game) but Katie Clarke was excellent as Clara as well.
The finale "Fable" sung by Clark is such an emotional outburst of music (which wasn't as obvious to me just listening to the cast album) that it was easy to see why she got the Tony. Like all good pieces of theatre, Piazza builds and builds to this moment in the show that once she finished the entire audience leapt to their feet applauding and carrying on. Not even jet lag could diminish having such a good time with this show.
Actually last year was a good year for musical theatre on Broadway as all four new musicals that were nominated for best musical are still playing. This contrasts starkly with the mostly crap they served up this year. I was only in New York for a few days and several plays and musicals closed while I was there (including West End transfer Festen and another vampire musical bomb, Lestat).
Piazza was still playing with Victoria Clark in the lead. Clark won the best actress Tony for her role in this. The show takes place in Italy in the summer of 1953. Margaret Johnson (Clark), the wife of an American businessman, is touring Italy with her daughter, Clara. While sightseeing, Clara loses her hat in a sudden gust. The hat lands at the feet of Fabrizio Naccarelli (now played by Aaron Lazar who I last saw in On the Town with the ENO last year), an appropriately handsome Florentine, who returns it to Clara. This brief episode, charged with coincidence and fate, sparks an immediate and intense romance between Clara and Fabrizio and lots of fabulous soaring melodies. There is a plot twist in that Clara is a little bit intellectually challenged but nobody finds out that until the second act. Besides, none of this should get in the way of a good musical...
To say that the music in this show is amazing is really to sell it short. Adam Guettel (grandson of Richard Rodgers) has composed a fantastic piece of musical theatre that is destined to become a modern classic. The soundtrack has become a best seller and hopefully other artists will record some of the music soon (iTunes sells it with bonus tracks performed by Guettel as well).
As for the rest of the show, I wasn't so thrilled by the book which panders a little too much to the inward-looking perspective of American audiences (such as attitudes to foreigners etc) but these were really minor issues. Maybe there is too much comedy and not enough character development but when has musical theatre ever made logic? Kelli O'Hara who originated the role of Clara has gone onto bigger things (The Pajama Game) but Katie Clarke was excellent as Clara as well.
The finale "Fable" sung by Clark is such an emotional outburst of music (which wasn't as obvious to me just listening to the cast album) that it was easy to see why she got the Tony. Like all good pieces of theatre, Piazza builds and builds to this moment in the show that once she finished the entire audience leapt to their feet applauding and carrying on. Not even jet lag could diminish having such a good time with this show.
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