This show deserves a long life. It's remarkable that this is a first effort for this young, talented creative team of Ross Baum and Angelica Chéri.
There's lots of evidence that they've worked and reworked this for years, rewriting and throwing out scenes and songs, so I HOPE that's a sign that they and the producers will listen to the feedback and be open to more changes, because with a few tweaks it can be a best musical level show with a long commercial life.
I hate to harp on what's wrong, because 90% is right. Baum's music is remarkable. The casting is mostly perfect. The book is touching and funny. The story and pace are mostly great.
Having seen it multiple times and discussed with a lot of audience members, It's pretty clear to me what should change:
- THE PRODUCTION DESIGN. God bless Robert O'Hara. He's done some great work that I love, but musicals are not his sweet spot. And Jason Sherwood's production design for Evita was a minimalist beauty. And Signature is known for doing beautifully minimal versions of bigger musicals; BUT this show SCREAMS for a bigger production. Most of the plot develops around a locale called The Boneyard. But the setting is only hinted at, with minimal set pieces and some suggestive projections. Big mistake. The Boneyard is a critical character in the show. Pfeiffer's character must fall in love with The Boneyard -- be mesmerized by its opulence.
- IT'S NOT BIG ENOUGH. Similarly, to succeed as a commercial musical this cast needs to expand by at least 2 more performers to fill that stage, and particularly to fill out the scenes in The Boneyard, to turn its "entrance" with the song Frenchman Father into more of a production number. The songs are beautiful, but too many of them are solos. There's also a little problem where Dan Tracy has to play both the white plantation owner that the sisters hate and are escaping from, AND the man Pfeiffer later meets and falls in love with. They. Can't. Be. The. Same. Guy!
- DAN TRACY. It pains me to say this, because Dan Tracy is a terrific actor, singer, and as far as I can tell a very nice person and cast mate. But he is too young and too small for the role of Jesse. The character should be unlike anything the sisters have ever seen -- a tall Texan that you could believe is independently rich, a man with a past and the charm of a predator. He doesn't necessarily have to be older, but he does have to project a lot of world weary experience, and be both charming and intimidating. It's not a role for a young pretty boy who's physically smaller than Raver-Lampman and Pfeiffer.
- THAT SONG. Peter Marks nailed it in the Washington Post review. The second act climax is a long 11 o'clock number sung by Jesse, a character that we really don't care about. It's possible that another actor could pull it off, but the smarter choice would be to kill this song and see how well the show plays without it. We don't really need to watch him sing through his logic, because in the end, we don't care.
I really want to see this show have a life, and I HOPE that the producers address these issues, arrange one more tryout in another city, and then (fingers crossed), get the show to Broadway without losing Solea Pfeiffer, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Marva Hicks, Donald Webber, Yvette Clark, and Awa Sal Secka (others great too, but these folks are all wonderfully cast in prominent roles).
