The Glorious Ones - sort of late (performance of 12/27/07)

Ahrens & Flaherty’s newest work, The Glorious Ones playing at Lincoln Center’s intimate Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, has an identity crisis. It’s equal parts PBS documentary, serious dramatic music theater, Marx Brothers’ episode and history lesson. So many different themes and ideas are thrown at the audience that no single one takes the dramatic lead. That’s not to say that the ensemble cast doesn’t provide full, rich performances and that the score isn’t dotted with the trademark melodic beauty and poetic lyric writing that we’ve come to expect from A & F. In fact, “I Was Here” and “Armando’s Sack” will surely be added to the growing canon of musical theater standards created by this team. What is lacking is a consistent point of view.

Each troupe members’ introduction is quick and underdeveloped. Because of this, you don’t really invest in these characters until a good 40 minutes into the show when the youthful Isabella comes along to stir things up with the older generation. The characters finally get to react to the power play about to occur in the troupe as the older generation refuses to adapt to the new ideas and tastes of a younger generation. The audience finally gets some insight into what motivates each character as lines are drawn, sides are taken and egos are stroked. This is when the show finally gets balls. But it’s almost too little, too late. This conflict should be the main thrust of the show. Without this conflict, it’s just a chapter in a “history of drama” text book.

Though it is made clear that commedia dell'arte is the precursor to modern comedy, its use in the show seems quaint and almost corny to a modern day sensibility. Interesting to watch and easily admired for the obvious skill required, some of the shtick comes off as just plain old-fashioned and may be distancing to some.

I can understand the hoopla surrounding Mark Kudisch as a performer. He does have a charm and sexiness about him and I have never seen him less than fully committed onstage. But his voice always sounds “fake” to me. Like he makes himself sound more legit than he actually is. Not that he doesn’t give a star turn as the lead player, Flaminio, but sometimes I think people hear a big, trained-sounding voice and automatically think “that’s awesome.” He’s got the acting chops and the personality, but his singing voice always seems to hang on the flat side and his top is really pinched and nasal. The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent. Ana Maria Andricain was on for Columbina and was quite natural and comfortable in the role. Also noteworthy were Julyana Soelistyo’s lovable Armanda and the physical comedy of John Kassir as Dottore.

Of course, I’ll always take a lesser A & F work over the best of the crop of recent musical theater writing teams any day. What might be lacking in thematic and dramatic arc is more than made up for with A & F’s obvious song writing skill and dedication to craft. Glorious Ones is intelligent, well-crafted, and often entertaining, but needs streamlining and focus.