#1
Posted: 5/2/07 at 5:53pm
...another openin', another show.
The AP is positive:
"Heavenly choral music, by Handel and present-day composer Adrian Sutton, envelops the proceedings. Choir members are perched above the stage and look down on the turntable setting that suggests "Les Miserables" but without the barricades. There is some remarkable design work by Still and Ti Green. A drowning sequence near the end of the evening is stunning, with bodies seeming to float across the vast height of the Imperial stage.
"Coram Boy" is an ensemble piece, but several performances in the large cast stand out. Xanthe Elbrick does double duty, portraying young Alexander in the first act and then after intermission a Coram survivor of Gardiner's misdeeds. She has a sweet, pure voice — the young male choir members are played by actresses — that makes her portrayal of a boy whose singing voice has not yet cracked all the more credible.
Bill Camp is a fiercely unpleasant villain, yet he never descends into caricature, and Brad Fleischer brings a gentle quality to the man's doomed, damaged son, haunted by visions of a motherly angel, who sweeps into his dreams and onto the stage.
There is a dreamlike quality to Still's fluid, graceful staging. And like all potent dreams, her vision — and that includes her overseeing of those celestial musical voices — remains vivid long after the tumultuous events depicted in "Coram Boy" are over."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/05/02/entertainment/e133705D51.DTL
The AP is positive:
"Heavenly choral music, by Handel and present-day composer Adrian Sutton, envelops the proceedings. Choir members are perched above the stage and look down on the turntable setting that suggests "Les Miserables" but without the barricades. There is some remarkable design work by Still and Ti Green. A drowning sequence near the end of the evening is stunning, with bodies seeming to float across the vast height of the Imperial stage.
"Coram Boy" is an ensemble piece, but several performances in the large cast stand out. Xanthe Elbrick does double duty, portraying young Alexander in the first act and then after intermission a Coram survivor of Gardiner's misdeeds. She has a sweet, pure voice — the young male choir members are played by actresses — that makes her portrayal of a boy whose singing voice has not yet cracked all the more credible.
Bill Camp is a fiercely unpleasant villain, yet he never descends into caricature, and Brad Fleischer brings a gentle quality to the man's doomed, damaged son, haunted by visions of a motherly angel, who sweeps into his dreams and onto the stage.
There is a dreamlike quality to Still's fluid, graceful staging. And like all potent dreams, her vision — and that includes her overseeing of those celestial musical voices — remains vivid long after the tumultuous events depicted in "Coram Boy" are over."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/05/02/entertainment/e133705D51.DTL
