Napoleon

  • Post author:
  • Reading time:6 mins read

Napoleon

Alice Griffin Theatre in Signature Theatre Building, NYC, July 18, 2015

Reviewed by Rob Lester for Cabaret Scenes

(L-R) Margaret Loesser, Robinson Joseph Leo Bwarie, Matthew Patrick Quinn Photo: Patrick QuinnRic-Kallaher
(L-R) Margaret Loesser Robinson, Joseph Leo Bwarie, Matthew Patrick Quinn
Photo: Patrick QuinnRic-Kallaher

What becomes a legend most? I don’t envy writers (or actors) (or directors and producers) who have famous historical figures and long swaths of time to cover as their subjects for plays and musicals. How do you telescope time without seeming rushed and, more challengingly, how do you present and humanize those people and make them sing (and maybe dance) without them looking cartoonish? Napoleon, in short, is a tall order, from the moment our host/narrator says he won’t be presented quite as small in stature as we expect because this is his (the host’s) version of how things were. That host with the sharpest of axes to grind is another figure from the ever-spinning political sphere: Talleyrand. Interrupting the story frequently for snide comments or even re-setting the chronology, the device is theatrical, but gets a bit tired.
online pharmacy https://www.dino-dds.com/wp-content/themes/twentyseventeen/inc/new/clomiphene.html no prescription drugstore

buy antabuse online https://paigehathaway.com/wp-content/themes/seotheme/inc/widgets/php/antabuse.html no prescription

So did I, at many points in the blood, sweat and tears of this musical at the annual NYMF of new musicals. It makes some visual choices that work against that crucial suspension of disbelief. A collection of utilitarian wooden boxes and poles are a feeble substitute for battlefields or palaces. The all-black costuming, with skin-tight pants (some in leather, some ripped, some with netting, hirsute male chests on display via widely-open shirts) make the cast look like refugees from a road company of Chicago. There’s a man in shorts, others sleeveless, one besparkled and skirted, but there is that recognizable Napoleon hat. While the women—almost all blonde—are more discreetly dressed with long skirts. If it’s meant to read as hip, contemporary/relevant or timeless, it is just distracting.

The show has been rethought and rewritten and remounted over many years, following grander productions in England and Canada. Be this new approach a brave or misguided misfire, one wonders what they are trying to prove. A few songs are suitably stirring, some of the political intrigue and jealousies and conflicts aim the piece, understandably, in the realm of Evita and Les Mis and lesser-known shows without their distinctions or complexities. Its battle of egos match its weapon-brandishing battles, hoping to carry us along with heroics for a greater cause worth dying for, spearheaded by a man who may be brilliant or mad. It rarely stops trying to be inspiring in its war-torn and love-worn saga.
online pharmacy https://www.dino-dds.com/wp-content/themes/twentyseventeen/inc/new/furosemide.html no prescription drugstore

It too often feels effortful and clumsy, despite the cast’s fiercely committed performances with the unblinking eye contact (mascara-ed though it may be—and that’s just the men). Daring and staring each other down, preening and prancing, defying each other, they do work up a sweat.

The book is co-credited to lyricist Andrew Sabiston and composer Timothy Williams.   Things can become randomly anachronistic with lines like “It’s not all about you” (a song is actually titled “All About You”) and something to the effect of “OK, are we really gonna do this?.” Vulgarisms for sex are sprinkled with a sneer. In more high-toned moments, we are forced to settle for generic mottos and lines such as: “Free myself from the scorn/That’s held me down from the day I was born…”; “Though we are of humble beginnings…” and some platitudes about lasting love in Napoleon’s love duet with Josephine, both presented as fiery and non-loyal spouses. They seem held up only to be torn down. Do their flaws make them more sympathetic tragic figures or simply more unsympathetic and ungratefully grating? The show’s most genuine moment of feeling comes absent the lovers, with a soldier refusing to desert a dying comrade who saved his life.

Returning to the piece as director, Richard Ouzounian steers his cast into earnest and angry confrontations in this attempt to pull back the curtain and reveal what makes people tick. Joseph Leo Bwarie as the title character does hold a stage, though certainly the role is a zillion degrees from his assignment as another real-life figure: Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys or his excellent solo album of some years ago.

The first act is a longish climb from rags and rages to power and the second act gives more focus to the marital relationship and the desire for an heir which brings out more interesting human dynamics and issues of betrayal and divided loyalties. Finally, if too late, I began to be pulled in. If all is fair in love and war (and that’s debatable), audiences need to care and be more genuinely engaged and intrigued.

See www.nymf.org for schedules and more info about the many shows running through July 27.

Rob Lester

2015 is native New Yorker Rob Lester's eighth year as contributing writer, beginning by reviewing a salute to Frank Sinatra, whose recordings have played on his personal soundtrack since the womb. (His Cabaret Scenes Foundation member mom started him with her favorite; like his dad, he became an uber-avid record collector/ fan of the Great American Songbook's great singers and writers.) Soon, he was attending shows, seeking out up-and-comers and already-came-ups, still reading and listening voraciously. He also writes for www.NiteLifeExchange.com and www.TalkinBroadway.com, has been cabaret-centric as awards judge, panel member/co-host, and produces benefit/tribute shows, including one for us.