David Pittsinger, Andriana Chuchman, Wynn
Harmon, Clay Hilley, Wayne Hu, Nathan Gunn
as Sir Lancelot
and Noel Bouley. Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival
Reviewed by James
Karas
Camelot is one of the great products of the American theatre and the choice for
this year’s Broadway musical at the Glimmerglass Festival. The choice is
unassailable and the production worth the trip to upstate New York.
The musical had an
almost disastrous opening in Toronto at the then new O’Keefe Centre in 1960 but
it managed to find its way and become a major hit. With book and lyrics by Alan
Jay Lerner (based on the novel The Once and Future King by T. W.
White) and music by Frederick Loewe, Camelot
has a marvelous plot containing pomp, circumstance, love, pageantry and an
interest in power and justice. It is all based on the legend of King Arthur and
the Knights of the Round Table but what really matters, of course, is that the
beautiful Guenevere falls in love with the French knight Lancelot. It ends tragically for all and the only thing
that remains is the legend.
Camelot needs a superb King
Arthur who for many of us must compete with the voice of Richard Burton, the
original creator of the role. The answer for this production is bass-baritone
David Pittsinger who wins the insidious comparison by making the role his own.
He has a sonorous voice and when he sings “I wonder what the king is doing
tonight” and explains the joys of his kingdom to Guinevere in “Camelot,” he is
simply splendid. Pittsinger gives us a humane, sympathetic and marvelous King
Arthur.
Canadian Andriana
Cuchman makes a beautiful Guenevere. She is sassy and funny when necessary,
moving and passionate when in love and a pleasure to see and hear. She goes
from “The Lusty Month of May” to “I loved you once in silence” with perfect
intonation.
Baritone Nathan Gunn
has a marvelous voice and his Lancelot is duly heroic but I have a couple of
complaints. Lancelot enters with a big paean to knightly virtue and
(unintentionally) human arrogance with “C’est moi”. He needs to overwhelm the
audience and here Gunn’s voice falls a bit short in size if not in quality.
Glimmerglass, to its great credit, does not use microphones, but in this instance,
I wish they had.
The second
observation is that Director Robert Longbottom (or was it just a perverse
reaction from the audience) found humor in “C’est moi” as Lancelot listed his achievements,
including physical perfection. Humour takes away from the beautiful song. Other
than that, Gunn made a Lancelot worthy of his self-description.
Wynn Harmon doubled as
Merlin and Pellinore, two juicy roles for a character actor and he did well in
both.
Jack Noseworthy is a
thoroughly villainous Mordred who enjoys being nasty. When he sings about “The
Seven Deadly Virtues” he does so with delicious conviction.
The sets by Kevin
Depinet were suitable without being grandiose. We see the Castle of Camelot in
the background during the outdoor scenes and the interior living quarters are
modest. The costumes by Paul Tazewell, from the attire of the heroic knights to
the beautiful gowns of the ladies at court, are splendid.
The Glimmerglass
Festival Orchestra and Chorus under James Lowe performed heroically as becomes
the tenor of the musical and all one can do is repeat that this is an
outstanding production of a great musical.
______
Camelot by Alan Jay Lerner (Book and Lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (Music) opened on
July13 and will be performed fourteen times until August 23, 2013 at the Alice
Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org
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