The Hollywood Reporter/Piazza review

[IssaMe]

Posted: 11/14/06 at 10:28am

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

"The Light in the Piazza"

Bottom Line: An exhilarating breath of Italian lyricism and music has just blown into town.

By Laurence Vittes
Nov 3, 2006

Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles
Through Dec. 10

The new Craig Lucas-Adam Guettel musical, winner of six 2005 Tony Awards, comes to the Ahmanson Theatre in a powerhouse production that has virtually nothing to do with the 1962 Hollywood film based on Elizabeth Spencer's graceful novella about young love starring Olivia de Havilland, Rossano Brazzi, George Hamilton and Yvette Mimieux.

The transformation of "The Light in the Piazza" is not faultless. In their rush to change the focus from the middle-aged pair of parents to the children themselves, Lucas and Guettel play down Clara Johnson's mental and emotional shortcomings. Where Mimieux was so ethereally beautiful and so minimalist an actress that it was possible to believe she was "different" in the sense that audiences 40 years ago understood, Elena Shaddow takes the opposite tack, signaling her alleged shortcomings by adopting a delightfully extrovert persona and voice reminiscent of Mira Sorvino in Woody Allen's "Mighty Aphrodite." Of course, once Shaddow begins singing in her beautifully flexible and multicolored voice, the grown-up angel that she is underneath the childlike innocence clearly and movingly reveals itself. Otherwise, since every character is at least a little dotty, Clara's issues go pretty much unnoticed.

The romance of the piece is that David Burnham's Fabrizio recognizes it at once, his dazzling singing and acting combining to charm the pants off everyone onstage and in the audience. He's the type of actor who, when he smiles, you could swear sunlight glints off his teeth, and his infectious energy makes the whole thing believable.

The role of Clara's mother is a tough one, which de Havilland in the movie played with a magnificent virtuoso restraint that couldn't have worked in a megabucks Broadway musical. So Christine Andreas, armed with a magnificent voice and a romantic streak, proceeds to give a warm, wise, witty and totally human tour de force performance of her own.


As Fabrizio's father, David Ledingham is no less suave than Brazzi was, but he's more quicksilver and fun to be around. Jonathan Hammond is enjoyable off somewhere in left field as Fabrizio's wandering brother, Laura Griffith looks fabulous and makes some wonderful sounds as the cynical sister-in-law, and Diane Sutherland is smashing in the one chance she gets as the mother of this weird Italian brood.

Although the book and the movie are rich in the visual pleasures of Italy, the musical takes a more practical approach, with only the occasional ruin, streetwalker-friendly sidewalks and formidable nude statuary to capture the flavor of Rome and Florence in 1953.

Finally, it must be emphasized how successfully Guettel's music creates a symphonic texture that is at its most effective during the most crucial emotional developments. And at moments when the two lovers sing as if they were singing songs without words, their haunting vocalises have the audience audibly holding its collective breath.

With such musical command and ambition, despite the fact there are almost no memorable tunes, "Piazza" rises above its nominal status as a musical to suggest that it could legitimately have been presented at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, across the Music Center's own piazza, by the Los Angeles Opera.

THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA
Presented by NETworks Presentations
Credits:
Book: Craig Lucas
Music-lyrics: Adam Guettel
Based on the novel by: Elizabeth Spencer
Director: Bartlett Sher
Musical staging: Jonathan Butterell
Music director: Kimberly Grisgby
Executive producer: Ken Gentry
Set designer: Michael Yeargan
Lighting designer: Christopher Akerlind
Sound designer: Acme Sound Partners
Costume designer: Catherine Zuber
Orchestrations: Ted Sperling, Adam Guettel
Conductor: James Lowe
Cast:
Margaret Johnson: Christine Andreas
Clara Johnson: Elena Shaddow
Fabrizio Naccarelli: David Burnham
Signor Naccarelli: David Ledingham
Giuseppe Naccarelli: Jonathan Hammond
Franca Naccarelli: Laura Griffith
Signora Naccarelli: Diane Sutherland
Roy Johnson: Brian Sutherland

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 11/14/06 at 10:46am

Yes, David Burnham can charm my pants off any time.