{"id":244923,"date":"2012-03-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-16T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/a-room-with-a-view-at-the-old-globe-theatre\/"},"modified":"2012-03-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-16T07:00:00","slug":"a-room-with-a-view-at-the-old-globe-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/a-room-with-a-view-at-the-old-globe-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cA Room With a View\u201d at the Old Globe Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Sondheim\u2019s lost musical<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Charlene Baldridge | Cr\u00edtico de Teatro SDUN <\/strong>\"\u201cA<\/a><\/p>\n

Director Scott Schwartz does what he can with book writer Marc Acito and composer and lyricist Jeffrey Stock\u2019s world premiere musical, \u201cA Room With a View,\u201d playing through April 8 at the Old Globe. Based on E.M. Forster\u2019s 1908 novel, the musical is highly derivative of works by Stephen Sondheim. Surely this is intended. How could listeners not notice?<\/p>\n

The best parts of composer and music arranger Stock\u2019s score are wordless places where Bruce Coughlin\u2019s orchestrations help the piece take flight. Granted, they are few, but there are also moments in which one is able to ignore Stephen Sondheim\u2019s insistent voice, plain as it is.<\/p>\n

Fans of Sondheim\u2019s \u201cSweeney Todd,\u201d \u201cA Little Night Music,\u201d \u201cSunday in the Park With George\u201d and \u201cFollies,\u201d to name just a few, will find them all in Stock\u2019s music and lyrics. The best fun of the evening is identifying each rip off.<\/p>\n

Fans of E.M. Forster, author of the novel condensed and trivialized here by Acito\u2019s book, will trot out the novel and even the 1985 film, which now seems a masterpiece of subtlety and detail. Those unfamiliar with both may enjoy the musical\u2019s simple spectacle, the situations and even the music. The situations here have nothing to do with English classism and everything to do with the Miss Honeychurch\u2019s fianc\u00e9 being a prig, and the contender, George Emerson, regardless of his d\u00e9class\u00e9 status, being young and handsome.<\/p>\n

Prior to her nuptials, Aunt Charlotte takes the rather unsophisticated Lucy Honeychurch to Florence, or Firenze as the natives prefer, here depicted by scenic designer Heidi Ettinger in multitudes of postcards and frescos that fly in during both acts. Lucy meets a commoner named George and falls in love with him, all the while conjuring up her priggish fianc\u00e9, Cecil. A rain of postcards provides visual climax at the show\u2019s happy ending.<\/p>\n

The true visual climax, and possibly the best musical number, \u201cSplash\u201d takes place earlier at a country lake, where three actors shuck Judith Dolan\u2019s period clothes in favor of an \u201cin the all together\u201d dip. This perks up Act II considerably.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Room With a View\u201d boasts two \u201copera\u201d singers, hotel workers Ragazza (soprano Jacquelynne Fontaine) and her beloved Italiano (tenor Glenn Seven Allen). They are simply called \u201cgirl\u201d and \u201cItalian,\u201d as if lack of proper names might downplay the fact they are able to sing and burst into lusty love duets, a la the Naccarelli family in Adam Guettel\u2019s \u201cThe Light in the Piazza.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stock\u2019s outlandish vocal lines, unrealistic tessituras and embellishments bedevil most of the company, even those who are accomplished singers, such as George\u2019s father (mellifluous Kurt Zischke), Reverend Beeber (Edward Staudenmayer), the go-ahead Miss Lavish (excellent comic Gina Ferrall) and the truly unsinkable Karen Ziemba, who portrays the repressed Aunt Charlotte.<\/p>\n

Ziemba\u2019s 11th hour number, \u201cFrozen Charlotte\u201d could be the show\u2019s best, but the composer freights it with impossible vocal demands.
\nWhen writing the musical, it behooves one to pick attractive juvenile leads that also sing well. As the young lovers Lucy and George, Ephie Aardema and Kyle Harris are attractive.<\/p>\n

Will Reynolds, who portrays two characters in Act I \u2013 Lucy\u2019s fianc\u00e9, Cecil Vyse, and Miss Alan ? fares best as the old lady. The other Miss Alan is portrayed by the appealing Etai BenSchlomo, who in Act II plays Lucy\u2019s brother and looks great in his buff male guise.<\/p>\n

As usual, the Globe\u2019s physical production and orchestra support a new musical wondrously. The pit orchestra of 13, represented by American Federation of Musicians in the U.S. and Canada, and led by conductor and music director Boko Suzuki, is exceptionally fine, comprising keyboards, strings, reeds and horns, acoustic bass and percussion. Kudos to associate music director and keyboardist Andrew Resnick, who plays Beethoven\u2019s Sonata No. 17 (\u201cThe Tempest\u201d) on keyboard, as the onstage pianist, Miss Lucy, caterwauls \u201cLudwig and I\u201d above it.<\/p>\n

With ostensible appeal to lovers of classics adaptations and derivative musical theater styles, \u201cA Room With a View\u201d is certain to please many. It continues Tuesdays through Sundays through April 8 in the Old Globe Theatre at the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, 1391 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park. For more information visit www.theoldglobe.org or call 619-23-GLOBE.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Sondheim\u2019s lost musical By Charlene Baldridge | SDUN Theater Critic Director Scott Schwartz does what he can with book writer Marc Acito and composer and lyricist Jeffrey Stock\u2019s world premiere musical, \u201cA Room With a View,\u201d playing through April 8 at the Old Globe. Based on E.M. Forster\u2019s 1908 novel, the musical is highly […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":244924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"\u201cA Room With a View\u201d at the Old Globe Theatre","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}