Priest,
Although you liked it more, I can't begin to say how much I agree with your take on PIAZZA. I find the comparison of the score to the work of Sondheim to be a bit (a lot) of a stretch. Though Sondheim works in complex melodies (and certainly harmonies), it's never difficult to figure out. And his lyrics, though sometimes a bit too clever by half (according to some) are never so steeped in metaphor as to be cloudy. His lyrics (unlike Guettel's for this score) are specific and direct. Taking PASSION as an example: 'I do not read to think. I do not read to learn. I read to live.' And BAM, it's done. The audience is clear as to who this woman is in three lines.
The songs in PIAZZA are too much about wallowing in a character's emotion and feeling and not enough about action. It's a difficult hybrid of concept and plot driven stories. It really isn't an examination of love and, to be honest, there's very little going on in terms of plot. I kept thinking scrap the intermission and most of the superfluous numbers and trim it to a concise, romantic, sentimental story. Embrace it for what it is and don't make it something else. The 'sophisticated' score simply did not fit this story. The title number was lovely, but it lay right in O'Hara's break and so the money notes were compromised.
In the end, I was frustrated most with being told things instead of being shown them. I was told about Clara's 'issue' instead of shown it (at least until halfway through act 2 and then it was too late). I was told about the friction in Margaret's marriage instead of shown it, which robs me of actually rooting for her to marry Clara to Fabrizio.
But the costume design is truly something.
"I'm so looking forward to a time when all the Reagan Democrats are dead."
