Just back.
It is always sad when an actor you love fails in a great role. It is doubly sad when two such actors do it in the same show. As the Baker and his Wife, O'Hare and Adams lack warmth, charm, love, wit, comic chops, and chemistry. And even presence. Adams's singing is ok. O'Hare's is horrible. Shockingly, Adams's gestures are trite and mechanical to the point of amateurishness. The duo's insipid costumes only emphasize the blandness of their performances. To summarize, the two characters who are the heart and soul of this musical disappear on that stage, brutally outclassed by everything else around them. I couldn't begin to explain how so much went wrong with Adams's performance. But it strikes me that O'Hare may be miscast. When Adams sings "You're passionate, charming, considerate, clever," all I could think is "NOT IN THIS SHOW HE'S NOT!"
Sorry. I am sincerely not enjoying reporting any of this.
I loved everything else about this production. Murphy is nothing short of spectacular. And she looks great! The rest of the cast is uniformly wonderful. The standouts: Mueller, soulfully underplaying, sings angelically. Stiles, whom I found terribly annoying in On A Clear Day, makes Red's every moment vivid, true, witty and fascinating. Zien does everything one would expect from him and more. Glick is charming. Zbornik - a great impressionist, here she seems to be cleverly channeling Katey Sagal - is hilarious.
The framing device and use of the child narrator is compelling and makes the final scenes much richer than they were. The hot scenes do not jump the sexual shark, at all. Innuendo is kept in proper balance with the wolf's dinner, the suggestion of going down on Red - based on the position of her body beyond the sheet - may be unmistakable, but only unmistakable as a metaphorical inference, not as an actual event. As such, it remains just this side of too much. The choreography works quite well and the special scenic effects are first rate (of course one might want the Witch's transformation to be more presto chango, but it's not belabored, and, being in the park, I give them a handicap). With the notable exceptions of Adams and O"Hare, and the Steward's (which I don't really get at all), the costumes work well.
I don't know why the twins turn to dust, but I'm fascinated by it and find it thought provoking. Maybe the kids were her delusion. Maybe Rapunzel smothered them just like she was smothered. Maybe she neglected them in her madness.
One more thing. Murphy's "Last Midnight" alone is, worth the price of admission, or in this case worth standing in line for hours for.
Updated On: 8/8/12 at 12:23 AM
