A TALE OF TWO CITIES - 9/15/08 Thoughts

Since it's Free NJ Transit week for college students, I decided to go up yesterday and rush A TALE OF TWO CITIES. I got a partial view seat in the front row, stage left. The view was pretty horrible a lot of the time, but here a few thoughts I had on the show.

I didn't find the show itself boring or exciting. It happened, I enjoyed myself at the time, but nothing really stuck with me after. It was fine, but unmemorable for the most part. I still think it's a mistake that the show does not open with "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." The staging of the prologue would benefit from it, as I thought that was the worst part of the show. The underscore was thrilling, but the staging was unnecessary... I would have preferred a voice-over. The first act also has a few unnecessary songs (including that first song Lucie and her father sing). Act two was much tighter, but it felt like a completely different show. Whereas act one is all about introductions and the love story, act two punches the audience in the gut with emotion and pulls us in so many different directions. It's exhausting to watch, so I can't even imagine how the cast feels.

Speaking of, the cast is the best thing about this show. James Barbour gives a performance the likes of which I've never seen before. His voice is glorious in this role, and his characterization of Sidney is perfect. Sitting up close I could see the passion in his face. He is beyond wonderful. Brandi Burkhardt as Lucie is also fantastic, I just wish she had something more to do. "Without a Word" was one of the show's absolute highlights. Aaron Lazaar is fine, nothing to write home about. The same goes for Natalie Torro, who did not impress me as much as she seems to have impressed everyone else on these boards. Nick Wyman, Kevin Earley, Michael Hayward-Jones, and Greg Edelman were all great in their respective roles. The clear stand-out in the ensemble was Mackenzie Mauzy, whose seamstress in the final scenes was heartbreaking.

For the most part, I don't have many negative or positive things to say about ATOTC. For everything I enjoyed, something else seemed off. The score was decent, if not memorable (I swear Sidney sang the same song three times, but they were actually three different songs). The book is probably stronger than the score, and I give Jill Santoriello much credit for condensing Dickens's novel so well, especially in making it simple for the audience to grasp and identify with. Speaking of which, the audience last night completely ate this show up. There was a lot of vocal support from the crowd, especially for James Barbour. I noticed at least one reviewer in the third row, press packet in hand (sorry, I don't know who). I'm interested to see what they have to say, because I don't love or hate what I saw on stage last night.

Later this week I'll be seeing A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS and 13. I'll have those reviews up by Friday.

I don't really understand why people keept saying Torro isn't on stage enough... I felt like she and Barbour sang almost every song in the entire show.

Yankee - By "so many different directions," I meant emotionally. Like during "The Tale," we don't know whether to sympathize with Defarge or not... things like that. I do agree that it was much clearer, and the action actually seemed to have a purpose.

I saw the show this week after having previously seen the Florida's try-out production of Tale. Sorry to say, the story wasn't any clearer for me now than it was then. I got the gist of it alright. It seems that because there was so much criticism about the first act being slow, they insisted on picking up the pace and overacting through it at times (mostly in the charactery, secondary characters.) I missed anyone's room for breath. The only actor with any breathing time in this is Barbour, and he's really grown into this role beautifully. Wish I could say the same for Toro. Granted, she overacted like crazy in Florida, but here because she was toned down, I think that she came across a bit more amateurish in the acting scenes. Especially in her final scene. She can still sing, though. I think the producers made a mistake casting Gregg Edelmann instead of keeping Santoriello’s brother in the role. I also think they should have kept Jessica Rush as Lucie instead of Brandi Burkhardt. Both Edelmann and Burkhardt seemed totally out of period and weak in comparison to their predecessors. On the plus side, Kevin Earley was better than Joe Cassidy and Aaron Lazar was better than Derek Keeling although both characters are still extremely thin in the content department. Technically the lighting and costumes are beautiful, although the set was much more impressive and looked bigger on the Florida stage. Like many people have said now, the production wasn't great and it wasn't terrible. Or rather, "it wasn't the best of times, it wasn't the worst of times." The producers pumped a lot of Les Miz blood into this show (see current Playbill article) but it's been diluted a lot, and to compare this Dickens with that, which is inevitable, Tale will sadly never hold a candle to the power and brilliance that was Les Miserables.

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Updated On: 9/17/08 at 10:39 AM