"Light in the Piazza" - SF Newspaper Review Thread UPDATED

[jimnysf]

Posted: 8/5/06 at 6:28pm

Here is the San Francisco Chronicle review:

We can't help it. A boy and girl fall in love by "The Light in the Piazza" and so do we
Robert Hurwitt, Chronicle Theater Critic

Saturday, August 5, 2006

(08-05) 12:55 PDT -- Love isn't just a many-splendored thing in Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas' "The Light in the Piazza." It's abrupt, risky, passionate, tentative, sweet, troubled, evasive, complicated, perhaps healing and somewhat scary. It's also absolutely transfixing in the luminous Best of Broadway offering that opened Friday at the Orpheum Theatre.

Sentimental? Sure. Anyone who's ever wept or even teared up at a wedding will be deeply affected by the central love story. But Lucas' cleverly layered book (adapted from the novel by Elizabeth Spencer) and Guettel's rich, sophisticated score do much more than develop the deeply affecting tension between the Romeo-and-Juliet-intense romance of the young American and Italian lovers, on the one hand, and the equally touching, complicated protectiveness of the North Carolina girl's mother on the other.

They leaven the sentiment and refract its light through comic and sobering looks at love -- the tempestuous Italian couple, a father's unequivocal affection, the marriage alive with risks and compromises, a tantalizingly genteel flirtation, a wife wondering when the love went out of her marriage. Director Bartlett Sher deepens the resonances with cunningly suggested images of other couples -- passionate, predatory, commercial -- in a production that shimmers with love and light.

That's very good news not only for the Bay Area but for the rest of the country as well. The "Light" at the Orpheum is the premiere of the national touring production of the recently closed, long-running Broadway show. It's essentially Sher's Lincoln Center Theater production that opened early last year after some significant revisions from its 2003 outing at Seattle's Intiman Theatre.

Native San Franciscan Sher, the Intiman's artistic director, has restaged the show with the same design team, the lush orchestrations of Ted Sperling and Guettel -- sumptuously recreated by music director Kimberly Grigsby, conductor James Lowe and the first-rate orchestra -- and a few veterans of the Broadway cast. The new ensemble seemed to have a little trouble finding its way at first on opening night, but once it did, the performances meshed in an ever more captivating whole.

A sepia cityscape of Florence, so glorious it should be underwritten by the Italian tourism board, greets the audience. Christopher Akerlind's lights shimmer through the mists of Florentine morns, sun-baked afternoons and evening afterglows. Catherine Zuber's costumes offer a fashion show of early 1950s, bright, youthful, flouncy, American summer frocks and well-tailored dresses, set off against the period Continental styles of the Italian denizens of Michael Yeargan's beautifully suggested, finely crafted Florentine piazzas, museums, shops and cathedrals.

A composed Margaret Johnson (Christine Andreas), with the self-assurance of wealth, and her naive, girlishly enthusiastic grown daughter Clara (Elena Shaddow) enter the piazza, Margaret delving into a well-worn Baedeker's guidebook for historical and artistic edification. Clara is most interested in the stories that sound like fairy tales, the people around them, the unusual light and the anatomical accoutrements of some of the statues ("It's the land of naked marble boys"). As Margaret half explains, Clara's mind isn't as mature as her body.

Enter Fabrizio (David Burnham of the Broadway cast), a young Italian transfixed by his first sight of Clara. His attention is more than reciprocated. Clara is immediately attracted and then some. In Guettel's sweetly, achingly soaring "The Beauty Is," Shaddow's clear, silvery soprano pours out her exhilaration with the new emotions she feels and astonishment that someone might love her. Margaret is not only not pleased, she tries with increasing forcefulness -- and decreasing effectiveness -- to distract Clara and get rid of Fabrizio.

It's the beginning of that three-way interaction that seemed a little off on opening night. Though Andreas and Shaddow establish a gently firm mother-daughter bond on the opening "Statues and Stories" number, the marked discrepancy in their Southern accents is distracting at first. Andreas also seemed to be pushing her maternal protectiveness in the early scenes, as if the actor, rather than the mother, was trying a bit too hard to convey her feelings.

The beauty of the voices and the palpably surging hormones of the young lovers help get the show going. As soon as Fabrizio's Florentine family takes over, and Margaret begins to interact with them, "Light" radiates ever more intricately lovely and emotionally compelling beams.

Burnham pours out his heart in a delightfully mock-operatic "Il Mondo Era Vuoto" to the mockery of his older brother Giuseppe (a comically cynical Jonathan Hammond) and indulgently bemused, worldly father, Signor Naccerelli (portrayed and sung by David Ledingham with gracious Old World charm). Lucas plays lightly with Italian stereotypes and delves beneath them to create a charmingly complex family dynamic, expertly filled out by Diane Sutherland and Laura Griffith as Giuseppe's mother and Franca, his wife.

Griffith's angry, jealous, voluptuous Franca is searingly comic as Guettel's romantic lyrics and score take a cynically bitter, anti-melodic twist in "The Joy You Feel." Andreas is pensively heartbreaking in Margaret's musings on her loveless marriage, "Dividing Day." Guettel seems to be channeling the tuneful emotional clarity of his grandfather Richard Rodgers one moment and the sophisticated wit and musical mastery of his mentor Stephen Sondheim the next -- and the dramatic acuity of both in Clara's terrifying panic attack, "Hysteria."

He's creating something entirely his own, though, particularly in songs like "Say It Somehow," a duet of physical, emotional and spiritual attraction beyond words, eloquently expressed in music and the joyously electric performances of Shaddow and Burnham. Complications ensue, of course. Shaddow captivatingly navigates Clara's inner roller coaster ride on the title song and abrupt "Tirade."

Andreas keeps growing in the role of Margaret. She's riveting as she reveals the roots of her maternal concern, and beguilingly seductive in the "Let's Walk" duet. She brings the show to its evocatively ambiguous end with a lovely light touch. Love may not be the answer, "Light" seems to say, but it's the best guess we're got.

Updated On: 8/7/06 at 06:28 PM

[GClef2]

Posted: 8/5/06 at 6:31pm

Good review!!!

I am so excited!

[jimnysf]

Posted: 8/5/06 at 6:34pm

Here is the link:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/05/DDGDAK9C0E5.DTL

[sidneybruhl]

Posted: 8/5/06 at 8:03pm

Thanks for posting. I'm looking forward to seeing the show on tour.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 8/5/06 at 8:30pm

I don't like "Il Mondo Era Vuoto" being referred to as "mock-operatic," but I'm glad he liked the show!

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 12:49am

Glad to hear this good review May the LIGHT shine forever

[jimnysf]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 5:33am

San Jose Mercury News Review:

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/performing_arts/15213666.htm



Lush, romantic `Piazza' skirts sappiness

By Karen D'Souza
Mercury News

Richard Rodgers got famous writing songs that make our hearts swell along with the melody. His grandson Adam Guettel also has a song in his heart. But his tunes strike at melancholy chords within us.

Be assured that ``The Light in the Piazza,' running through Aug. 27 at San Francisco's Orpheum Theatre, marks one of the most hopelessly romantic new musicals to hit Broadway in forever. Based on Elizabeth Spencer's novella about Americans abroad in Italy, which also inspired the 1962 MGM picture of the same name, ``Piazza' captures bodice-ripping passion worthy of glorious CinemaScope. But Guettel is also a composer-lyricist of our times, a cynical age with little patience for sappily-ever-after, so there is a wistfulness to this Tony-winning score that casts its own rosy glow.

From the gauzy opening tableau, as middle-aged Southerner Margaret Johnson (a wry Christine Andreas) and her naive daughter Clara (the exquisitely fresh Elena Shaddow) stroll across a Florentine square, the musical stakes out its territory as dreamland. Michael Yeargan's sets and Christopher Akerlind's lights gorgeously evoke the seduction of Italy, the towering statues, the winding alleys, the expanse of air and light that makes a city like Florence seem like a work of art in motion.

This is where Clara's sun hat suddenly flies off her head and into the hands of a handsome young man, Fabrizio (an ardent David Burnham). He doesn't speak much English and she doesn't speak much Italian, but that doesn't stop them from falling into bliss. Margaret tries to come between them. She knows that Clara isn't all she seems, that their relationship may be doomed to end in disappointment. But she hasn't quite got the heart to do it. Wedding bells still chime in her hopes for her daughter. Fabrizio's smooth-operator father (David Ledingham) also does his bit to distract her from her misgivings.

If that sounds awfully sentimental, rest assured it is. ``Piazza' bursts with soaring melodies and lovey-dovey dialogue, but both are etched with nuance here. Director Bartlett Sher grounds each scene in candor while Craig Lucas' dialogue smartly deflates moments that might feel maudlin. The intimacy of the piece, the way the characters think out loud, the way they let us in on their doubts and regrets, more than makes up for its melodramatic excess.

Yet, the star of this show remains the score, from haunting ballads such as ``The Beauty Is' and the sweeping title song to the witty Sondheimesque ditty ``Let's Walk.' Guettel, as he did in ``Floyd Collins,' has a way of teasing shadows from the light notes, dissonance from the harmonies, that keep us yearning to hear more. While his lyrics by no means live up to his music, the score is lush enough to sweep us along through the clunky patches.

By the time the lovers finally come together, we are all too aware that it may not be forever (what is?), but that hardly seems to matter. ``Piazza' celebrates the ephemeral, the sun shimmering in a square, and its power to transform, maybe even redeem us, if only for a moment.

``The Light in the Piazza'

music and lyrics by Adam Guettel,

book by Craig Lucas

based on the novella by Elizabeth Spencer

upshot: Fresh from Broadway, an old-fashioned romance that shimmers with new musical sophistication.

Where: Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market St., San Francisco

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays

Through: Aug. 27

Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes, one intermission

Tickets: $35-$90; [phone] or go to www.shnsf.com


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[jimnysf]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 5:39am

From the Contra Costa Times:

'Light in the Piazza' a charming musical

By Pat Craig
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

The world stopped, and spun backward for a moment, to allow Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel to retrieve "The Light in the Piazza," the charming new musical that captures the breathless romance of the classic American musical comedies of a half-century ago.

Time, of course, will tell if the multi-Tony-Award-winning musical, which opened Friday in San Francisco, will become a musical comedy classic. But what "Light" does, with all the charm and heart-tweaking romance of Lerner and Loewe or Rodgers and Hammerstein (composer Guettel is Rodgers' grandson, by the way), is recreate the ticklish emotion of romance beyond all odds that was so much a part of the musical stage in the '50s.

But this is not done as a stuffy homage or ironic sendup of an era. Instead, it is set in 1953 Italy, so it can claim every right to the conventions and niceties of the period, from the meeting via a wind-born, big-brimmed straw hat, to the intimacy of a shared cigarette that billows with hits of clandestine romance.

Lucas' writing is sharp, as are Guettel's lyrics, wrapped in delightful melodies that are, again, evocative of the '50s, but meaty enough to satisfy the tastes of contemporary audiences -- basically, if this tale had been told on stage in 1953 it would have been scandalous. Today, though, it is a truthful story (based on the Elizabeth Spencer novel), that reflects the passions that coursed through the souls of the characters, whether they lived in '53 or 2006.

"Light" is a simple story, really. Margaret Johnson (Christine Andreas), the wife of a Southern cigarette company executive, takes her grown daughter, Clara (Elena Shaddow) to Italy, to show her the romantic sites seen on Mom's pre-war honeymoon; a passionate prelude to what turned out to be a loveless marriage.

Naturally, as is required by the Rules of Musical Comedy, Clara meets a fella, Fabrizio (David Burnham), before the first latte cools. And, quicker than you can say, ciao bella, they are deeply, and, as it turns out, hopelessly, in love.

The story rolls down the cobblestone road of 1953 transatlantic courtship. Margaret harbors a deep secret about her daughter, one that, by all rights, would prevent her from marrying. Fabrizio's family has its doubts about their boy marrying an American girl.

But Clara is the light in Fabrizio's piazza, and he's not about to abandon her, no matter what. And, since the same light shines in Clara's eyes, she wouldn't let him.

While gentle and fanciful, the story is engaging and contains enough twists, including hints of a romantic fling between Margaret and Fabrizio's father, Signor Naccarelli (David Ledingham) to hold rapt interest. But it is, after all, a musical, and the tunes, stunningly performed by a collection of remarkable voices, are the star attraction of the show.

The tunes range from cutting and harsh, such as, "The Joy You Feel," a bitter song about love and marriage gone horribly wrong, sung by Franca (Laura Griffith), Fabrizio's sister-in-law, to the aching and beautiful, "Fable," sung stunningly by Andreas.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 5:46pm

Oakland Tribune:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/entertainment/ci_4147405




THEATER REVIEW
Guettel's music shines gorgeous light into complex 'Piazza'

By Chad Jones, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area

BEAUTY is something the musical "The Light in the Piazza" does well.
Adam Guettel's rich, passionate score evokes intricate shades of emotion and deep wells of feeling as it spins the tale of a mother and daughter visiting Italy.

Michael Yeargan's set gives us surprisingly, delightfully accurate depictions of 1950s Florence, from piazzas, to the Uffizi Gallery to a middle-class Florentine home to a well-appointed hotel room.

When a show has "light" in the title, the lighting designer has to deliver, and Christopher Akerlind's painterly, illuminated tableau is nothing short of gorgeous.

There is much to admire and savor in "The Light in the Piazza," the Tony Award-winning musical that kicked off its national tour Friday at San Francisco's Orpheum Theatre.

This is musical theater for musical theater connoisseurs. It's a fine Italian wine in a Broadway season of two-buck Chuck.

The show, under the direction of Bartlett Sher, who has been with the show since its world premiere in Seattle in 2003, is impeccably crafted. From Catherine Zuber's sumptuous, stylish 1950s costumes (the women's dresses alone are almost worth the price of admission) to conductor James Lowe's masterful direction of the lush-sounding 15-piece orchestra, there is always something to captivate your attention.

Playwright Craig Lucas was given the task of adapting Elizabeth Spencer's 1960 novella of the same name into a musical, and it's a testament to Lucas' skill that he was written a book that would almost as interesting without the music. A book of such stand-alone quality is a rare thing in musicals.

The dialogue is sharp and the characters well drawn as Lucas lays out the story of Margaret Johnson (Christine Andreas), a refined lady from North Carolina, and her daughter Clara (Elena Shaddow), whose mental development was slowed by a childhood accident.

Best of all, as Lucas delves into the notion of a parent's reluctance to let go of an adult child, he captures the delicate flavor of Spencer's writing.

Guettel's score uses Lucas' sturdy foundation to build an intricate network of emotions. The music's closest theatrical relative is Stephen Sondheim in that it's sophisticated and multi-layered, but the songs and underscore are also accessible and filled with soaring passages as when Clara touches the excitement of first love in "The Beauty Is" or when Fabrizio (David Burnham), the Italian boy who pines for Clara, expresses his love in "Il Mundo Era Vuoto," which is sung in Italian with no translation.

But Burnham's performance is so robust and the song is so well structured that translation is not necessary.

Andreas' performance in the key role of Margaret, the mother, is warm, and her two arias, "Dividing Day" and "Fable" are convincingly sung, but in face and voice, Andreas looks so much like Laura Bush it's a little unnerving. And she also wears a similar look of loving frustration brought on by years of intense care and patience.

Shaddow and Burnham as the young lovers who may be in for more than they can handle have the kind of spark you crave in this kind of romantic, love-at-first-sight story.

In the supporting cast, David Ledingham as Fabrizio's father and Laura Griffith as Franca, Fabrizio's sister-in-law, bring the kind of Italian polish and fire you might expect in a Bertolucci film.

As the story progresses, and Margaret can't quite bring herself to tell Fabrizio and his family about Clara's arrested mental state, the show grows more and more tense. And the happy ending feels — unlike so many musical happy endings — uncertain and possibly all wrong.

Kind of like real life.

So why, with so many marvelous elements, does this "Piazza" feel distant?

For most of its 2 hours and 15 minutes the show is compelling and involving, but it never quite rises above that final notch on the musical theater nirvana meter. This is a complex show that elicits complex reactions. Somehow those reactions occur at a remove.

"The Light in the Piazza" comes close to genius, though.

To paraphrase one of Guettel's lyrics, the show takes chances. "This is almost touching what the beauty is."

[justme2]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 6:17pm

so jimmysf, how did you enjoy the SF cast? There are so many Piazza threads in the search function that I ask you here instead...

I saw it on PBS and was ok with it, but realized of course that I was viewing a filmed and edited version of the show.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 6:23pm

I didn't like it on TV but I really enjoyed it live. Are you going to see it? There are discounts during the week.

[justme2]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 6:46pm

Yes, I am going to see it...but I think it's going to be "A Chorus Line" this week, and then Piazza will be seen. Thanks for the discount heads up!