Dry these unbecoming tears
I haven’t used this blog since Buxton. This is partly because I haven’t had a staged performance since then. Today I’ll use it to review the NYGASP Yeomen, which I saw last night; perhaps soon, I’ll use it to talk about Buxton again. (I hope to go again, but nothing is confirmed as of yet. I’m waiting to hear back from various groups.)
NYGASP Yeomen review: GO!
I loved Erika Person as Phoebe. She is new to this role, but I saw her with NYGASP in Buxton as Iolanthe and Cousin Hebe. (I also saw her as Mercedes in Opera Delaware’s Carmen this past fall.) She’s a very sensitive actor, fully engaged in the events and the people around her. As a Phoebe must be. She has wonderful, lively eyes that brighten and enhance all of her scenes. The only slight negative was physical — Erika is more womanly than girlish; Phoebe, I’d think, is considerably younger than Fairfax and Shadbolt; this one looked more contemporaneous. (Both those gentlemen were young, too, though.) There is a trade-off: there are very few good mezzos who look seventeen. I’ll gladly take one who looks an attractive thirty if she is also a great actor.
David Wannen was an unusually young an’ handsome Shadbolt. He was more goofy than threatening, and his character was repulsive only in his awkwardness. He was funny and pleasant, but I thought it was a bit of a weird choice for the role. I think I prefer a more traditional Shadbolt. He had very strong, pleasant voice. His dialogue and acting were very good, with the exception of an awkward scene with Phoebe at the end of Act II. I’m not sure what was to blame there, but the scene was slow and just generally awkward. The same goes, incidentally, for the dialogue between Fairfax and Elsie immediately before “Hark, what was that, sir?”.
Richard Holmes was the best Sergeant Meryll I’ve ever seen. I don’t particularly care for “A laughing boy”, particularly in the context of the beginning of Yeomen, which takes too long to set up anyway. But he has such a lovely, easy voice, and such engaging presence on stage, that I would have been disappointed not to have seen it. He’s a wonderful performer. Thanks largely to him and to Erika, the long expository beginning of the show (I sometimes half-jokingly refer to everything before Jack Point and Elsie’s entrance as the ‘prologue’) was engaging, exciting, and not ever even a bit tedious. I love watching Richard’s subtle bits on stage — one that stuck out for me was the pause and shape of his mouth: “Aye, deuce take the old … witch!” It was clear that he’d considered the first word that came to mind, and settled for a rhyme.
Speaking of which, NYGASP is the first group I’ve noticed to attempt to establish the one-way romance between Dame Carruthers and Sergeant Meryll earlier in the show. This is a good thing, because the libretto makes it appear out of nowhere as a new plot element in Act II. Dame Carruthers delivered her line, “A good day to you!” to Sergeant Meryll, who quickly turned upstage, and Dame Carruthers was intercepted by the Second Yeomen, who continued the conversation with her. It was a cute touch. (Said Second Yeomen, by the way, was sung superbly by Alexander Elisa. He had a really pleasant, warm baritone. They gave half his opening solo to the First Yeomen.)
Speaking of good continuity innovations, Elsie and Fairfax met a couple of townspeople immediately after their engagement; Shadbolt observed them with interest, then asked those townspeople what had happened before paying his visit to Phoebe; this explained why Shadbolt knew that “the one thou lovest” was her alleged brother. Nice touch.
Angela Smith’s Dame Carruthers was engaging and powerful. I was sometimes distracted by an inconsistent accent from her, though. Most of the company had good enough accents that at least I had no complaints (I don’t know whether natives would agree with me or not), but Smith did let some Americanisms slip through. “She’s a merried woman.” “Nay, mAster Leonard…” “A preddy girl…” Elsie and Point were also occasionally guilty of accent inconsistencies. For Elsie, the word “master”, which she says many times, is revealing. Point’s slips came mostly in his Act II patter song. “Can’t,” “laughs”, “asks”.
David Root had a nice easy tenor voice and was a likable Fairfax. Andi has mentioned a few times that NYGASP aims for a more heroic Fairfax. That’s all well and good; we want Elsie to fall in love with him for a reason, and he is after all a very well-liked and well-respected war hero. That said, I don’t think it’s possible or desirable entirely to purge the character of his apparent less-than-virtuous character traits. Not that NYGASP didn’t try; but I don’t think one can hide that he’s toying with an impressionable young woman, intentionally allowing her to be upset at his advances, then distraught at her apparent situation in the Act II finale. Nor, I think, is there reasonable room to interpret him as being anything other than deliberately cruel to Jack Point in playing on his affections for Elsie. (He’s explicit in his vindictiveness: “thou shalt pay for this, Master Point.”) And his callousness toward Phoebe is, even if not deliberately hurtful, at best neglectfully insensitive. NYGASP tried to avoid these character interpretations, at least with respect to his treatment of Elsie. He smiled approvingly at Elsie’s rejection and faithfulness during their scene together, and the arquebus shot came several beats later than is usual, in order for his “I spake but to try thee” line to be fully appreciated by the audience. (This is contrary to Gilbert’s libretto, in which the dash at the end of the sentence indicates that the arquebus interrupts the line; NYGASP’s Fairfax delivered his line and finished it, then he and Elsie shared a moment before the shot.)
Another unusual treatment:
Dame Carruthers: Now, mark my words: it was of this Fairfax she spake, and he is her husband, or I’ll swallow my kirtle!
(Sergeant Meryll pulls Fairfax aside)
Sergeant Meryll: Is it true, sir?
Fairfax: True? Why, the girl was…
(Dame Carruthers approaches them, listening. Fairfax notices her and apparently changes sentences mid-way through)
Fairfax: …raving! Why should she marry a man who had but an hour to live?
I assume this deviation from Gilbert’s stage directions was done in order to avoid making Fairfax lie to Sergeant Meryll. I certainly wouldn’t want to see Fairfax demonized — but I don’t think that he works whitewashed, either. Heroic, fine; saintly? Certainly not. Audiences ought to be ambivalent about Fairfax (as they ought to be about Point). So I think, anyway.
NYGASP moves extremely well; we saw this to great effect in the many dance sequences in Rose of Persia Thursday, and there are also many obvious applications to G&S, too — I remember being very impressed by the opening chorus to the NYGASP Pinafore when I saw it a couple of years ago. But not all shows need involved choreography; I had just a bit of the feeling that NYGASP felt a need to give its dancers something to do. The scene I have particularly in mind is “Here’s a man of jollity”, which had the townspeople — not the strolling players — involved in some very impressive, but dubiously relevant, acrobatics. If the citizens move like this, what need have they for the likes of Jack and Elsie! I need like the frenzied energy of that scene, though. It emphasized Point’s ineffectiveness as a man (he appeared to be reasonably effective as a jester — he had his crowd laughing). He just stood hopelessly as Elsie was manhandled. This is an effective, decision in its way, though I always find it just a little bit implausible. Why isn’t he at least trying to interfere, or to get help? What would have happened if the Lieutenant hadn’t shown up?
The duet itself was nicely sung and nicely danced, involving members of the chorus to attractive effect. I do wish they’d done more to tell the literal story of the song in the choreography, though, as it’s central the the plot of the whole show. It’s a challenging song to choreograph effectively, and NYGASP’s was better than most. It at least included an emphasis on the most important part — the reunification of the merry man and his maid at the end. But did the new audience member recognize the unfolding of the story in the show itself? I’m guessing not, but perhaps I’m underestimating him.
I liked Stephen Quint and Laurelyn Watson Chase as Jack Point and Elsie. This was Quint’s first Point, and I could see that he wasn’t quite as comfortable in the role as he will be by his fifth; he had some minor but noticeable difficulties with his dialogue, and some trouble staying with the orchestra during his music. But his delivery and characterization were very good. He was something of an awkward, helpless jester, who never had a chance at the girl but was able to carry the audience’s sympathy anyway. I would like to see a more bitter delivery of the very dark lines in the Act II scene with Wilfred, and his song, but on the whole, it was an excellent Jack Point. The ending scene was perhaps the best I’ve ever seen. He shares the credit there with the excellent acting of Chase’s Elsie. (This was also the only Yeomen finale I’ve ever seen in which the “Come, dry these unbecoming tears” line was prominent, both musically and dramatically. Cool.)
I was sorry to see Point facing upstage during most of the wooing scene; the jester’s reactions there can, I think, reveal a good deal of his character. (The following quartet was a little awkward, too. Point and Phoebe were emoting as one would expect, but I couldn’t quite figure out what reactions Fairfax and Elsie were exhibiting.)
Chase’s Elsie was phenomenal. I have very little to say about it, other than that I thought it was superb, the accent difficulties I’ve already mentioned notwithstanding. The only awkward spot was, as I mentioned, some uncomfortable dialogue with Fairfax in the “shrivel into raisins” scene. I don’t know whether the blame was hers, or his, or Al’s, or just an off night.
A few more general observations: the Meryll’s had a cool house that rotated, so that we could see the front door and window from the outdoors scenes, and could also see inside the house when the situation demanded it. It was well-used, for the most part. The one glaring exception occurred immediately before “Rapture, Rapture.” The dialogue between Sergeant Meryll and Dame Carruthers took place inside the house, and the song was outside. In between, the house rotated to its outside view. Meryll went outside via the front door; Dame Carruthers walked through the house’s downstage wall! I guess they wanted her out faster than the door would allow.
The orchestra, under the conducting of Al Bergeret, was very good; I was particularly impressed by the clean sound of the brass section. The music direction was lively and exciting, although I have to say that Bergeret takes a good deal more liberties with tempos than is my preference; it sometimes feels as if the tempo is constantly slowing down and speeding up. I’d rather be able to know with some reasonable degree of certainty when the next downbeat is going to fall.
It was a great show. I cried, which counts for a lot.
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