- When: 8 tonight, 2 and 8 p.m. tomorrow, 2 and 7:30 p.
m. Sunday, 7:30 p.m.
Monday through Thursday, 8 p.m. next Friday, 2 and 8 p.
m. June 9
- Where: Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston St., Boston
- Tickets: $32.
50-$87.50
- Reservations: 617-931-2787; www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.
com
Composer Adam Guettel's lush, romantic score with some of the lyrics in Italian or broken English is more opera than hit musical, and sometimes tips into the melodramatic. Classical music fans could close their eyes and simply enjoy the incredible and well-wrought orchestrations.
It's a grand and sophisticated attempt to do something new with the American musical: The well-received experiment works on many levels but has its flaws.
Even though Michael Yeargan's sets and Christopher Akerlind's lighting transport the audience to Italy, parts of the first act are slow so slow that one becomes aware of the theater, the seat, the people sitting nearby. The pace picks up in the second act and builds to a powerfully emotional "Fable," which actress Christine Andreas (playing Margaret Johnson) sings with a wrenching mix of joy and loss.
"The Light in the Piazza" opened on Broadway in 2005, moved to Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater for 504 performances and was featured on PBS's "Live From Lincoln Center" before leaving New York for a yearlong national tour.
Based on a 1960 novella by Elizabeth Spencer, the play was made into a movie in 1962 starring Olivia de Havilland as the mother, Margaret Johnson; Yvette Mimieux as her daughter, Clara; and a young George Hamilton as her Italian suitor, Fabrizio Naccarelli.
Since all that happened 45 years ago, I'll take a moment to issue a spoiler alert. If you don't want to know about the much-alluded to "special" condition Clara has, stop reading.
Set in 1953 in Florence, Italy (with a sightseeing trip to Rome), "The Light in the Piazza" is the story of an American mother and daughter on a trip. The mother hovers protectively over her daughter, who was kicked in the head by a Shetland pony at her 10th birthday party and is now a 26-year-old with the mind of a child half that age.
Katie Rose Clarke, who made her Broadway debut playing this role, does a wonderful job of creating a character who is outwardly charming and sweet, while struggling with emotional immaturity.
We see glimpses of her stalled development in little things (such as rushing up and asking an elderly Italian man how old he is) and big things (like threatening to kill her Italian boyfriend's sister-in-law for kissing him).
Andreas also turns in a strong and moving performance as the mother, Margaret, who lives daily with the guilt of a moment's inattention (she was answering the telephone) that changed her child's life forever. Margaret struggles with the distance in her marriage to a Southern tobacco magnate, who does not travel to Italy with them.
And she makes an incredible decision to let her daughter marry this passionate Italian man, against her husband's wishes.
David Burnham is utterly charming as the 20-year-old Fabrizio, who falls hard for a woman he can barely talk to because of the language barrier. His powerful voice projects the passion and virility of the young, just embarking on life.
Despite stellar performances all around, "The Light in the Piazza" is murky in great part because of the plot. It throws out so many intriguing ideas about loss and love's ability to redeem but fails to delve into them. It's unsettling to think Margaret will let her daughter marry Fabrizio without telling him or his close-knit family about her daughter's very real challenges.
"Romantic love cures all" is fine for Hallmark, but it's disturbing in this context.
With six Tony awards, fantastic costumes by Catherine Zuber and music to melt your heart, there are reasons to see "The Light in the Piazza." But I'm planning to read the novella and see the 1962 movie to see if they add depth to this powerfully emotional tale.
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