Entertainment :: Theatre
Camelot by Robert Nesti
EDGE National Arts & Entertainment EditorTuesday Sep 20, 2005 “Only ‘Tristan and Isolde’ equaled it as a bladder contest,” said Alan Jay Lerner after “Camelot” opened in Toronto in the fall of 1960. Clocking in at four-and-a-half hours, it was of Wagnerian length; and was also a musical play with Wagnerian ambitions. Based on T.H. White’s epic telling of the Arthurian legend, it was a long way from “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” As rethought by Lerner (with music by his “My Fair Lady” partner Frederick Loewe) it offers medieval Utopia with Arthur as its visionary leader. Ambitious, mystical, romantic, little wonder it seemed to go on as long as an episode of the “Ring.” It was trimmed to a more manageable 3-hours, which is the version being presented at the North Shore Music Theatre at the Shubert through October 8. Still despite some lovely songs, witty lyrics, and lofty ambitions, “Camelot” is a long haul. “Talk-a-lot” is more like it.
Of course “Camelot” comes with its own mythology created when then President John Kennedy saw the show and felt an affinity for the idealistic Arthur; and his premature death gave new meaning to the lyric “one brief, shining moment. This has elevated the show to legendary status. But does it deserve it? “Camelot” can’t seem to make up its mind what it wants to be, and spends a good deal of time debating the point. For a good deal of the first half it’s rather light-hearted, more in the style of a musical-comedy; then in the second it becomes a musical play, and the change in tone is awkwardly developed. Of course, once it does the show becomes more interesting. Never underestimate the appeal of a nasty villain: here Mordred (Arthur’s bastard son) appears at the top of the second act and finally gets the plot out of first gear. Played with wonderful brio by Josh Grisetti, Mordred is the villain you love to hate, and his machinations give “Camelot” its spine. Without him, the musical would be a series of pompous platitudes couched in pretty music and clever rhymes.
Under Gabriel Barre’s conceptual staging, this production has its pluses, primarily the appealing performances of its three leads (a personable Joseph Dellger as Arthur; a sure-voiced Nili Bassman as Guinevere, and a letter-perfect Maxime Alvarez de Toledo as Lancelot;) and some minuses: Most notably an annoying Gap-dressed stage manager (Adam Wylie in a variety of roles) who smarmily sets the action in motion. (Is this an attempt to cash in on the youth appeal of “Lord of the Rings??” Whatever the reason, it’s a bad idea.) , There are also some silly special effects such as the sorceress Morgan Le Fey’s invisible kingdom that looks like some cheesy special effect from some Japanese horror movie and her cameo performance as a giant Julie Taymor-like puppet that looked like a left-over prop from “Into the Woods.” What, though, makes “Camelot” such a chore is not so much the eccentricities of this production, but the material itself, which reduces jousting, romantic infidelity, magic, chivalry, and civic idealism into a snooze of a musical.
Through October 9 at the Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St, Boston. Tuesday – Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are priced from $30--$63. For more information call 800.447.7400.
Robert Nesti can be reached at rnesti@edgepublications.com.
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