"See What I Wanna See" at The Blank

Last night, I got to finally see, in person, my favorite musical I'd never seen: Michael John LaChiusa's chamber piece, "See What I Wanna See." I've been kicking myself for five years that I didn't catch it during the original run in NYC when I had the chance, and I was thrilled to find out it would be having its West Coast premiere at The Blank, Noah Wyle's little theatre on Santa Monica Blvd's Theatre Row (which has also produced his "Wild Party" and "Little Fish.") Obviously, it was great to finally see a show that I've learned by heart from the OCR-- finally, I got to hear all the dialogue. Several key plot points are not found in the songs and dialogue on the OCR, so now I have the whole story of the three multifaceted fables on the deep themes of Truth and Faith, rendered as they are with such humane poignancy.
Since I am so familiar with the OCR, I doubted that there would be talent to match the original cast. Happily, I report that Jason Graae is really terrific as the twitchy Janitor in Act I and absolutely owns Act II as The Priest. I just saw him a few weeks ago in La Mirada's production of "Spelling Bee" and, wow! What a transformation to "serious acting"! He's great. I couldn't keep from smiling at Doug Carpenter, who played Morita, The Thief, and The Reporter, and not just because he's a great big hunk of baritone beefcake. After a shaky start to the show, he was absolutely riveting in Jimmy Mako's big soliloquy-- just the right mix of menace to go with his good looks and great voice. His commanding, confident performance here gave me my first regret that I didn't see Pasadena Playhouse's doomed revival of "Camelot," in which he played Lancelot. He's THAT good. Suzanne Solomon was good as The Medium/The Aunt, and, much as I adore Marc Kudisch, I think Perry Ojeda was actually better than him as The Husband/The CPA vocally (his ascent into falsetto was both funny AND gorgeous. Bravo). The only cast member I didn't like was Lesli Margherita, but having seen her before elsewhere, that wasn't a surprise. Her voice sounded strained, and every time she had a high note, she would sort of turn it into a screech or a shriek to cover the fact she couldn't hit it. I didn't like the way she hammed it up as Kesa and The Wife, but I will admit, she was hilarious as the flakey, ditzy Actress in Act II. And, she is very beautiful (all of the cast, I thought really had the right "look" for their parts). Surprisingly, the only real disappointment was the orchestra; the normally-reliable David O must not have gotten enough rehearsal time, because the band was consistently and conspicuously behind the actors almost the whole time. With a little bit more practice, and (hopefully!) the arrival of a set (?!), I think this will be a very respectable production of LaChiusa's timely, and hopefully timeless, masterpiece.

Updated On: 4/11/10 at 07:59 PM

I thought the lack of set was really interesting, the lighting was beautiful. I completely disagree about Leslie, she was the best thing about the show for me, and at the matinee yesterday, she sounded flawless. To each his own, I guess. Great production, a must see.