Photos: Carol Rosegg
Something very special is happening on Seventy Sixth Street. If you’ve been to the York Theatre Company recently, you know exactly what. And if you haven’t, you’re missing something. While Lincoln Center over the years developed a reputation as a launching pad for musicals, the York Theatre Company has turned into a fitting home for new musicals seeking a New York audience. Presented as full productions and meticulously and melodiously staged readings with strong singers and memorable music, these shows are finding appreciative audiences and standing ovations. Theatergoers willing to forsake the frills of scenery for sound (and sweet sounding) fundamentals are being treated to shows that have Broadway quality scores and performers in well directed and presented bare bones staged readings as well as fully realized productions. Welcome to new...York.
New York City is the home of Broadway and musical theaters. Lesser known, however, it is also a showcase for new work on smaller stages and scales. And York is distinguishing itself as a best of breed. Already known for productions of tried and true musicals, what you might call the new York is producing staged readings (and productions) of new musicals that deserve to be seen and developed. In a city that already is the capital of musicals, there are two places you can be in Manhattan on days when the York debuts a new musical: Inside or outside their theater. Audiences are returning, aware that they are seeing something special, great productions of new musicals with singers and scripts (sometimes) that warrant Broadway or at least bigger formats. Think of these shows as Broadway babies, or a place where musicals are not being reborn, but born.
After strong shows such as “The Jerusalem Syndrome” and “Twist of Fate,” the York debuted another show with memorable music and performances. Monte Cristo (the musical), with book and lyrics by Peter Kellogg and music by Stephen Weiner, brings Alexandre Dumas’s somewhat picaresque, French novel (the author of The Three Musketeers) to life on the stage. Musical director David Hancock Turner performed with passion as well as piano chops. Dumas’ plot, although Peter Kellogg takes some liberties, is far from realistic and requires the suspension of disbelief, but what musical doesn’t? Those who do suspend disbelief are in for a fun, entertaining ride full of the majestic scenery of soaring songs and wise, well written and sometimes humorous lyrics. The music and lyrics are always married together so the tone and text match.
Dumas’ story, which is truly larger than life, is more fantasy and fairy tale than reality, but then French novels already have provided fodder for Broadway smashes such as Les Miserables based on Victor Hugo’s novel. In Monte Cristo, Dumas the son essentially rewrites his father’s fate and truncated life, with more than the patina of wishful thinking. His father Thomas-Alexandre, who was half African-Caribbean, was put at the helm of an unseaworthy ship that sank, only to find himself consigned to jail for two years in a very real and realistic tragedy. Thomas-Alexandre emerged only to die a few years later, leaving behind memories and stories Alexandre’s mother told about his heroism. Alexandre Dumas in Monte Cristo made his father the hero he imagined him to be. He rewrote his father’s final years, giving him wealth and good fortune, very different than the cards reality dealt. His novel and this musical are a fantasy not reality reconstructed, but it is fun to watch the story unfold presented with a procession of show-stopping songs.
Our hero Edmund Dante (Trent Saunders) falls in love with and is torn from the arms of Mercedes (Lauren Worsham) before he meets an older man in jail (Danny Rutigliano) who gives him directions to buried treasure before dying. It’s hardly believable, especially with the man dying right after revealing the secret of the treasure. If he said he was telling our hero now, because he is dying and doesn’t want his treasure to be lost, that might go smoother. Our hero emerges from jail as the make-believe Count of Monte Cristo, a poor man suddenly made wealthy and bent on revenge. The count isn’t recognized due to some efforts at disguise and the fact that the poor are invisible to the wealthy, so there is no memory. It’s not quite believable, especially that the love of his life doesn’t recognize him. It might be easier to suspend belief if she knows, but doesn’t let on. In any case, theater is magic and musicals are always an exercise in suspension of disbelief, and the illusion of the invisible count could be managed with stagecraft. I always believe if the scenery is beautiful, the trip is worthwhile. And this is a beautiful voyage.
The lyrics and music are truly what gives this Monte Cristo the royal treatment. Peter Kellogg has written so many memorable lyrics that work in the moment. Suffice it to say that if you see the show, you will spend a good portion of it trying to remember lyric after lyric. Stephen Weiner's music performed by David Hancock Turner is a concert in itself. A few songs use magnificent music and lyrics to ask questions such as “Is anyone there?” in jail and a romantic couple asks each other is this all there is? When we hear a couple singing to each other about a last kiss, we get two people drawing closer and further apart at once. It’s as if what these people can’t find in life, they find not just in love, but in music and much of the emotion in this show is in the songs which, as the best songs in musicals often are, reveal heightened emotion and key moments.
Peter Flynn directs this show, based on Charles Fechter's play and the original novel, as if it were a full production. While it was done in five days of rehearsal, it hardly shows. This is a well blocked show with each scene truly staged. While the cast has scripts, they rarely look at them. And blocking as well as harmonies all drive home the message of each scene. The scripts may often be on music stands, but the cast is mobile. Everyone is acting not just with dialogue, but physically. And the show flows smoothly, almost as if all the cast needs to do is drop their scripts and don a costume to turn this into a fully staged production.
Trent Saunders as Edmund Dantes is a leading man with a leading voice, falling in love with Lauren Worsham as an equally melodious Mercedes. James Judy is the villainous Danglars, a banker who for some reason accepts a letter as proof that he must extend nearly infinite credit. Philip Hernandez has a commanding presence, radiating authority with a deep voice that seems strong and stable. Daniel Yearwood is a leading man who here shows us shades of a villain, always remaining likable and intense and, in the end, providing the truly saddest few seconds in the show. Grace Marie Rusnica is radiant, as beautiful as her voice is melodious, with a nice comic touch as well. Alex Humphreys as Haydee and various other roles has her moment when she sings a ballad about revenge in a play that deals in large part with taking revenge. Pablo Torres is the naïve young man who believes love lasts forever, while Eliseo Roman plays various characters realistically. The cast’s voices are top notch in the latest of a series of well-cast productions.
The show has more than its share of humor, led by Danny Rutigliano who comes across very much as the Nathan Lane and henpecked husband of this novel married to Anne Nathan’s mercenary Carconte. Rutigliano articulates so clearly that we hear every syllable and swings between deadpan and cheerful, able to summon laughter from the willing audience with a look and a jaunty tilt of the head. Always cheerful as the count’s wingman, he reminds us that everything will be all right, because we cannot imagine tragedy befalling such a cheerful fellow. When our hero announces he will remake himself as a count, Rutigliano good naturedly sweeps that aside, asking whether it will be “the count of three” or “countdown.” Nathan is at once practical and pitiless in her critiques of her hapless husband. The characters in the story believe they are acting a tragedy, but we know it is a fairy tale founded not in fact, but Dumas’ dreams of what his father could have been, or was in his own fantasy. And when Rutigliano sings he’s not the right man for the plot of the pretend count, it’s just a pleasure. His wife sees a diamond, changing her tune. Many songs end at a different point than they begin.
This Count has a happy ending contrary to Dumas’ story in which a hunger for revenge destroys not just those around him, but our make believe count as well. A happy ending works just fine, as we see our characters end on a beach, a modern fantasy of a happy ending. But it isn’t happy for everyone. After hearing about one small thing, we hear a gunshot off stage indicating that one of our flawed characters has shot himself. It’s, though, as if he has dispensed a kind of justice. And rather than feeling horror, because this is not a realistic story, we know it is just a moment in a musical and one with songs that could easily stand alone on an album.
After the show ended and the standing ovation subsided, one audience member said it was by the same author who wrote The Three Musketeers, Victor Hugo. Les Miserables made its mark. Could Monte Cristo also have its moment? While all French novelists from that era may seem alike to some, Dumas has his strengths and weaknesses. And a few plot points probably followed one another too closely here. Still, the desire for perfection is at once the enemy of and the engine fueling progress. Some people wait until everything is perfect to present, while others present because what is there is great, if not flawless. I believe that is the courageous and in the end more gratifying choice.
At the end of the show, following a standing ovation, an audience member asked one of the creators of the musical for an autograph. Whether or not that autograph will be valuable, the experience was. Monte Cristo is a story that strains credibility. But this Monte Cristo is a musical that takes a famous story and deepens it with music, lyrics and performances that provide a fully realized product. Even if one needs to imagine costumes and context, you can spend an evening seeing a fun show and listening to songs good enough to listen to on Pandora or Spotify when you get home.
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