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Washington playwright Norman Allen wrote the book for a new musical that
opened last week in the beautiful city of Prague. Allen's thoroughly rethought retelling is clear in its structure, refreshing
in its approach and provides key characters with sufficient depth to be both
interesting and understandable in a single-evening presentation, while
serving the score efficiently. That score features music by Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll
& Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel) and lyrics by Jack Murphy, his
partner on The Civil War and the pop-operetta now playing in
Budapest, Rudolph. It is infused with Spanish rhythms
from the flamenco guitar opening to the gypsy tinged final number, but
retains the lush expansiveness typical of Wildhorn's music. The lyrics are a
bit harder to characterize from a single performance since they are
translated into Czech with the English originals flashed
overhead as surtitles. They seem, however, to reflect Murphy's passion for
evocative word play and imagery. The star of the show is Lucie Bílá, a star of the first magnitude in the Czech Republic, winner
of their version of The People's Choice Awards ten of the last twelve years. She captivates her audience in a
performance that is calculated to do just that - even if it is at the
expense of the show itself. Many in the audience come specifically to see
her, and she certainly does not disappoint them. |
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Storyline: A modern treatment of the well known story of the femme
fatale who captivates a policeman who is supposed to take her to jail,
bringing him under her spell just as her long time lover/husband/pimp (you
be the judge) returns to her world, retains a sense of being actually in no particular
time at all. Here the temptress is the leading attraction in a traveling
troupe of Gypsies in a circus-like carnival on the edge of a city in Spain.
Allen has taken the tale of the seductive power of a
woman who uses her femininity to mesmerize and control, and moved her from
the cigar factory to a gypsy carnival/circus. He's
retained her sexuality and seductive self-confidence, the susceptibility of
the policeman to her charms and the power of the man from whose control she
must escape even at the price of her life, but he's given it all the
universal applicability of an adult fairy tale. Wildhorn and Murphy have
built songs into the structure that either heighten the sense of sexuality
or deepen the feeling of impending trouble, along with a few needed moments
of comic relief and others of support for visual spectacle. As those who
have followed Allen's career well know, he once wrote a book for a circus
show, Cirque Ingenieux, which toured the United States for three years.
Here, Allen places the climactic events in a circus. The
physical production includes live cats, a llama and a camel in a circus
parade number for which Wildhorn provides a march that sounds too similar in
construct not to distract those who know Carnival's "Direct from Vienna."
The rest of the score, however, sounds like pure Wildhorn - even when he and
his lyricist are paying their own homage to Cole Porter in a comedy number
about what to give a man "While He's Waiting" for what he expects on the
wedding night. Allen and Murphy turn that song around later in the show with a very clever twist. The score includes a
number of opportunities for
Bílá to demonstrate her unique hold on the Czech audience, but also material
on which others may shine.
Among those who, on opening night, took full advantage of
each opportunity, while contributing to the strength of the entire show,
were Markéta Poulicková as the policeman's fiancée and Paula Brínková as her
aunt. While
Bílá is a powerful sex symbol, Poulicková is a
much more lovely girlfriend/bride-to-be with an innocence that is just
beginning to feel the blooming of romantic desire. It is Brínková who gets
to deliver the saucy material of Wildhorn and Murphy's Cole Porter-ish
number and she does so with a wicked gleam in her eye. Martin Posta makes a
menacing force of evil as the man who believes he "owns" Carmen. But where
one would expect red-hot passion between
Bílá and her policeman, Robert Jícha, there is a
restraint that is decidedly un-sexy. Whether in the clinches with his
fiancée or in seduction scenes with
Bílá's Carmen, Jícha seems mechanical. Where there
should be emotional kisses, yearning caresses and passionate efforts
to get close to the skin of his women, Jícha seems more interested in getting
his own undershirt exposed.
Circus animals and costumes aren't the only notable
sights in this big, first class production. From a fountain with real
running water pouring into a pool to a multi-paneled house of mirrors and,
of course, a massive circus parade on a very deep stage, there
are impressive effects throughout, but none quite as effective as the
seemingly simple chapel for the most emotionally touching scene of the show.
With just candles, an alter and a backdrop, the entire feel of the show
switches to a deep seriousness for Poulicková's exquisite delivery of a
prayer to "Saint Theresa" and a heart-felt emotional duet between her and
Bílá ("A Fool for Love"). Then, with the reprise
of "While He's Waiting," the tone is brought back into that of the rest of
the show as a transition back into the world of Carmen's circus.
Music by Frank Wildhorn. Lyrics by Jack Murphy. Libretto
by Norman Allen based on the novella by Prosper Meremee adapted by
Egon Kulhánek and Adam Novák. Translation and Czech
lyrics by Adam Novák. Directed by Gabriel Barre. Choreography by
Pavel Strouhal. Music arranged by Koen Schoots. Orchestrations by Kim
Scharnberg. Conducted by Krystof Marek. Principal cast reviewed: Lucie Bílá,
Pavla Břínková, Zuzana Durdinova, Ivo Hrbac, Robert Jícha, Jiří Korn, Athena Langoska,
Katerina Novakova, Brano Polak, Martin Pošta, Markéta Poulíčková,
Katerina Sildova, Slegr, Linda Stranska, Tomas Trapl, Vostarek, Jana Zdarska,
Jana Zenahlikova.
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