Summary
One would not expect "Irena's Vow" to be reworked with music but the tale of the French Revoluton is constantly cloaked in new rhythms that sound like "Les Miserables." "A Tale of Two Cities" by talented talented Jill Santoriello shows the twenty year effort she devoted to her epic and its music and lyrics based on the 1859 Charles Dickens novel. Gerard Alessandrini recently announced his forbidden Broadway musical spoofs would cease because this season seemed to offer him so litttle to exploit.
He would have had a field day with "A Tale of Two Cities" with its wooden slatted Tony Walton sets, David Zinn brocade costumes to decipher the aristocracy and rags to identify knitting Madame Defarge, eager to murder and plunder so things should be in Paris "The Way It Ought to Be." One isn't always sure who is doing the isnging though each is excellent many borrowed from the original "Les Mis." Of course, the cavernous-voiced star is baritone James Barbour, our handsome hero who turns nobly from rascal boozer to family friend so altered by love he sings a prayer with a child. Alessandrini would have had fun with "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" and "Let Her Be a Child. " Music that travels including to Paris and London improves especially when it stops being fortissimo and slows down. The love interest is beautifully handled and cast. Lucy (Brandi Burkhardt) is the exquisite focus and sound of both gentleman's attention.See the full content of this document
Extract
On and Off Broadway
The unkindness of the powerful in today's financial markets, the holocaust and the French Revolution feature this week: two onstatge and one in current events. The true story "Irena's Vow," a remarkable tale about...
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