In this best of all possible worlds, there is no such thing as a truly definitive version of “Candide,” only earnest approximations of the wonderful if problematic Leonard Bernstein musical that opened the 2017 season of the Evanston-based Music Theater Works (formerly Light Opera Works) on Saturday at Cahn Auditorium.
“Candide” has always walked a precarious line between its book, an adaptation of Voltaire’s scathing attack on Enlightenment optimism, and Bernstein’s witty, richly tuneful score, an operetta-style satire with plentiful nods to Gilbert and Sullivan, topped with a dollop of Latin-American dance.
A flop on Broadway when it opened in 1956, one year before “West Side Story,” the show has gone through a bewildering number of salvage operations over the years. Lillian Hellman’s original book was scrapped in favor of a Voltaire-adapted libretto by Hugh Wheeler. Over the years no fewer than six lyricists, including Richard Wilbur, Stephen Sondheim and Bernstein himself, have stirred the bubbling broth.
Although Bernstein put his stamp of approval on a “final revised version” of “Candide” in 1989, a year before his death, the show seems destined to forever remain a work in progress, its picaresque scenario fair game for whatever nips, tucks, additions, subtractions and Bright Ideas stage directors choose to heap on its sprawling incoherence.
The new staging by Rudy Hogenmiller, Music Theater Works’ artistic director, is based on the production by British-based director John Caird that was first performed in 1999 at the National Theatre in London. We are given more music and text than in any previous Chicago production I’ve seen in recent years, including Harold Prince’s circusy extravaganza at Lyric Opera in 1994 and Mary Zimmerman’s idiosyncratic trope at Goodman Theatre in 2010.
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One isn’t sure Hogenmiller’s retention of several windy monologues adds more than length to a show that, at nearly three hours, including a single intermission, tests an audience’s attention.
His “Candide” may be short on chuckles but is long on the perky musical-comedy exuberance that has long been the director’s signature. The showstopping song-and-dance ensembles devised with choreographer Clayton Cross — “Auto-da-fe,” “I Am Easily Assimilated” and “What’s the Use?” — lighten the mood just when the plot threatens to bog down in the woeful catastrophes that beset the journey to enlightenment undertaken by the naive young hero Candide and his beloved Cunegonde.
Stage-managing it all, quite literally, is Voltaire himself, handing out costumes and props to the cast members during the overture, stepping into the action and providing the linking narration as his alter ego, Dr. Pangloss, Candide and Cunegonde’s idealistic tutor, who insists that everything happens for the best in this best of worlds, including his own sickness, torture and execution.
Gary Alexander, a Music Theater Works veteran, negotiated the demanding dual role with a verbal, vocal and dramatic acuity that kept the pace brisk despite the show’s tendency to lose its dramatic compass. I missed the wry irony others have brought to this wordy part, but with stage presence this good, who’s complaining?
Ben Barker’s sweet, musically true tenor and fresh-faced innocence made him a winning Candide, although he failed to quite touch the heart in the low-born youth’s lament for his lost love and also in his bitter disillusionment once he realized her true nature. He made amends when leading the ensemble in an affecting “Make Our Garden Grow” finale.
The spirited soprano and hoofer Emily Barnash nailed her big number and monologue as the Old Woman with one buttock (don’t ask), while another company stalwart, Billy Dawson, preened up a storm as Maximilian, Cunegonde’s snobbish brother. Abby Murray Vachon made a somewhat bland Paquette. The very funny Russell Alan Rowe, another singing actor familiar to audience regulars, roared marvelously as the cynical Martin, Pangloss’ philosophical polar opposite. The promising music comedy performer Raymond Goodall danced and sang a lively Cacambo.
Cecilia Iole seemed miscast as Cunegonde. The soprano brought secure high notes and clean coloratura technique to the score’s most famous aria, “Glitter and Be Gay” — give her that. But the heavy amplification — a nagging problem throughout the show — rendered her sound brassy and squeaky. Worse, the stage direction turned her character into a cackling hysteric, desperately adorning herself in jewelry like some demented Marguerite in Gounod’s “Faust.” Iole is a vivacious performer, no question, but Hogenmiller leached likeability from the character, leaving only Cunegonde’s insatiable weakness for baubles and riches.
The 24-piece orchestra under Roger L. Bingaman inflicted serious mayhem on the famous overture but redeemed itself with tidier, spirited playing later on. The design team — including Adam Veness (scenic and technical director), Alexa Weinzierl (costumes) and Andrew H. Meyers (lighting) — combined stylish period attire with modern theatrical fillips, making resourceful use of a clever split-level unit set and various crates and trunks. Don’t miss the cuddly toy sheep.
Warts and all, Music Theater Works is giving us a fun, frothy-serious summer entertainment. Not bad as the unofficial start of Chicago’s celebration of the Bernstein centennial, which officially arrives later this year.
3 stars
Music Theater Works’ production of Bernstein’s “Candide” continues through June 11 at Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson St., Evanston; $34 and up; 847-920-5360, www.musictheaterworks.com
John von Rhein is a Tribune critic.
Twitter @jvonrhein
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