I got more pleasure from the Irish Repertory Theatre's chamber-musical Off-Broadway production of Ernest in Love than from many big-budget Broadway shows I've seen in recent years. It was impeccably cast and directed, and the natural beauty of the unamplified voices in that intimate theater is a delight. Ernest in Love is a musical version of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Ernest. And while I am not sure anyone really needed to make a musical version of that perfect play—the songs by Anne Croswell and Lee Pockriss are a decidedly uneven lot—this is as well-executed a production of the musical as one could hope for. Director Charlotte Moore and her nine actors deserve great credit for getting just the right tone from start to finish. (That's no small accomplishment; the Paper Mill Playhouse's recent production of The Importance of Being Ernest never got the tone right, and the evening became exceedingly tedious.) Beth Fowler—biting off each syllable so crisply—made a splendid Lady Bracknell; I've never seen the character done better. Noah Racey, as Jack Worthing, was a delight not just speaking his lines, but moving gracefully into song and dance. Ian Holcomb was fine as the foppish Algernon Montcrief. And newcomer Katie Fabel was an irresistible Cecily Cardew. None of the songs reach the peaks of perfection that Wilde's still-surprising original script does. But "A Wicked Man" and "A Handbag Is Not a Proper Mother" are great fun, and the love duet, "Lost," is a treat. The worst songs (like "The Hat") are mere space-fillers, slowing down the action. Special praise must go to musical director Mark Hartman, whose sensitive, crystalline four-piece orchestra makes the music sound as good as it possibly could, and at times better—more sophisticated—than it actually is.
(Pictured: Ian Holcomb and Beth Fowler. Photo by Carol Rosegg)
Chip Deffaa
Cabaret Scenes
January 3, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org
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