Monte Cristo: A Puzzle in Three Acts (None of Them French)

[macbeth]

Posted: 3/23/26 at 11:58am

Look, I get it. The Count of Monte Cristo is a brick of a novel. You can't fit everything in. Nobody's asking for a six-hour epic ... though honestly, after hearing about this production, maybe they should have.

What I am asking for is the revenge. The whole point of Monte Cristo is that Edmond Dantès spends nearly two decades in a dungeon, slowly losing his mind, before clawing his way back to destroy the people who put him there. That's the engine of the entire story. So I'm genuinely baffled that the adaptation apparently treats his 18-year imprisonment as a speed bump. No visible aging, no psychological weight, just a quick "time has passed" and we're off to the comic relief.

Speaking of which - Abbé Faria as comic relief? The man who is essentially Edmond's father, teacher, and reason for living? The relationship that makes the revenge mean something? Turned into a zany sidekick? Bold choice. Bewildering choice, but bold.

And the treasure. You made a musical called Monte Cristo and we get one oversized diamond. One. The man is supposed to be unfathomably, obscenely, almost cartoonishly wealthy ... that's part of the fantasy! Where are the chests? Where is the spectacle? Where is my gold?

The novel isn't Dostoevsky. It's a pulpy, propulsive adventure story about revenge and reinvention! It's practically begging to be a musical. That's what makes all this so maddening. They had everything handed to them and somehow made it feel small.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/23/26 at 12:08pm

I saw this the other night and my feeling after was a sense of confusion. It’s more elaborate than anything I’ve seen in that space and you can’t argue with the level of talent they got for it, but the material in no way deserves those people’s talent. There was some pleasing music scattered throughout but it (to me) the book and music clearly want to be reminiscent of “Les Mis” and “Man of La Mancha” and it rarely (if ever) works. And my God, if I had to hear one more variation of the old “Take my wife - PLEASE!” joke, I would have yelled out “OMG just get a divorce!”