I Saw The Light in the Piazza Today!

This is an amateurish review because I have to write about 8 drafts to write a good review and I'm too tired. I didn't like the show. I didn't understand half of the first act because it was in Italian. The songs were nice, but unmemorable. I loved the cast, except that Kelli O'Hara's diction was terrible and Victoria Clark's accent kept disappearing and was unconvincing.

luvtheEmcee - I agree with you 97%. I think it's important to be open to different things but at the same time...this was his/her opinion and if the Italian was a barrier for him...so be it.

I'm learning Italian next year, and that wasn't the major issue for me. There were a few reasons why I didn't like it. The score was nice, and I liked the story. For some reason, the whole show just seemed forgettable and mediocre to me. For some strange reason, I can't really verbalize my thoughts of the show.

Be still my heart but John Simon gave it a qualified rave

Another sign of the end of times - John Simon giving a good review. When Brantley gives one, it is all over.

---

I am in the middle here. I loved its sophistication and subtlety (and italiano, which I speak un po...), its rich ambiance, its use of the 50s aesthetic (yes, Ben was right -- FAR FROM HEAVEN does come to mind). And I loved something many people don't like -- that it's a very "small" story played out in an extraordinary space. There's something breathtaking about all that sun-washed space around the minimal number of actors and the narrow scope of the story. Like being in a Piazza, no? That wasn't a problem for me; that was its central concept. It is wonderfully alive and at home on the Beaumont stage, and uses that area better than any show since ... the Andre Serban CHERRY ORCHARD. (How's that for an ancient history?)

(SPOILER) But it keeps preparing us to have our hearts broken, to feel something soaring, transcendent cathartic, particularly, of course, late in act two. And that's where, for me, Mr. Guettel's work, while ambitious and probably brilliant on its own terms, doesn't reach our hearts. Sorry, MY heart. For me, the show needs a ... a ... how else to put it ... a "Send in the Clowns" moment. "Dividing Day" in act one comes close, but for me, the attenuated, too coolly metaphorical "Fable" does not, and it's in the moment that must achieve that critical catharsis for this tortured mother who fights to let go and then must do so. I so wanted to cry! And just when we should linger over the hard-won nuptials, they rush the final curtain. I thought we deserved some theatrical equivalent of "close ups," and we are held off, and back, when we most need to be on top of the emotional undercurrents. Again, very subjective feelings, and I still felt there is much to cheer.

---

Updated On: 4/27/05 at 09:43 PM

Wait... It's in Italian??

Since John Simon questioned TLITP as a "noble failure" and admitted his praise was largely by default, I would hardly call his review a rave of any kind. As a writer, I'd prefer a flat-out pan to Simon's damning with faint praise any day.

Excellent review, Auggie. I think many people who left the theater disappointed with Piazza feel somehow slighted for similar reasons. And you said it very well: "...it keeps preparing us to have our hearts broken, to feel something soaring, transcendent cathartic..."

I think though, in fact, Piazza does accomplish this, but subtly. I can imagine what it might be like to be a mother in the situation Victoria Clark's character is in. It does break the heart to learn what she reveals about her daughter and her own role in it. What her observations of the young couple's courting (and her interactions with the older male characters in the play) reveal about her own disappointments in life and love is also heartbreaking. The transcendence and/or catharsis come in how she finally deals with all this.

I do have to agree that the metaphors in "Fable" are a bit heavy handed and don't quite work, but I think the story and Victoria Clark's performance provide enough ballast that such flaws can be forgiven (can't say that opinion will transfer to a cast recording). I also like the audience's removal from the final scene because we're forced to take the ending (without revealing too much) mostly as Margaret's moment rather than Clara's and Fabrizio's.

Well, that's because the ultimate journey in this musical belongs to Margaret, not Clara. I, for one, was COMPLETELY heartbroken.

********SPOILER*************

I was heartbroken because Margaret sees for her her daughter the chance at real, actual, unstoppable love. The kind she has come to realize she will never have...and even the curious attraction she and Fabrizio's father share can never culminate in anything as they are both married and neither quite willing to mar those bonds.
That said, the final moment worked brilliantly for me. Here's a woman seeing her daughter find true love and happiness despite all of her attempts to thwart it (however subtly at first, bluntly later, and all because she thought she was protecting Clara) and knowing it is not to ever be for her. And, in truth, she can't even be really happy for Clara and Fabrizio, only sort of resigned to her own fate. And, in that, I think Fable works brilliantly and I'd rank it right there with Guettel's other amazing closing solo, "How Glory Goes." I love his apparent joy in bringing a musical to a close with the central character's "theme song" as it were.

Auggie, you could be correct, and certainly, Clark has a LOT more experience and time with the role, having done it in two previous productions.
And I also agree, it shouldn't be completely up to an actor to provide everything. But we know that's usually the case, even in brilliantly-written pieces, otherwise, even Shakespeare would be community-theatre proof (and god knows it isn't!).

All I can say is, you didn't have a fully-pleasurable experience with the show, which is fine, but at least you have been able to better articulate this beyond the atypical "She just didn't do it for me" line most people seem stuck on.

Hi, I'm Italian and reading this topic now I'm very interesting about "The Light In The Piazza"...I don't know the show, but if some songs are sung in Italian finally I will understand a Broadway musical song from the begin to the end!
A special request: can you write me a short synopsis of this musical and the titles of the italian songs?
Thanks

Brava, Mistress! Wow, what an accomplished community of posters we have on this board...breaking the stereotype of the monoglot Philistine-American daily. Color me impressed. Have you (or has someone else) posted translated synopses of the Italian songs yet?

Dummy, I havent seen the lyrics translated except for a few lines in one of the reviews. I understand all the lyrics when hes singing, I just cant seem to remember all the words by the time I get home! Maybe after a few more listens I'll have it all memorized, or maybe the CD will come with lyrics- if theyre written in Italian, I could translate them. The unexplained title means 'The World Was Empty.'

Gabrielle, se ti ricordi, abbiamo parlato quando tu hai visitato questo website prima. I miei genitori erano nati in Italia, ero nato in America, ma la mia nonna parla soprattutto Italiano. Ho imparato nella classe e nella casa.