The Light In The Piazza

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Surrounded by the romance of Italy, full, rich music, gorgeous voices taking the breath away, charming lyrics, and believable characters, The Light In The Piazza currently playing at the Temple Buell Theatre under the auspices of Denver Center Attraction wraps itself around a story skillions of parents find themselves faced with around the world.

Katie Rose Clarke as Clara Johnson are from The Light in the Piazza.

What happens when a special needs child falls in love? How do you tell the truth? Whose truth do you tell when the truth has been buried over years of busyness, role-playing, and denial?

A story that has needed to be told for a very long time, and in a time when there is a lot of rompish silliness flaunting itself on stage poking fun at whatever for the sake of a laugh, albeit some of the poking fun very well accomplished, but along comes a musical offering a completely different flavor.

The flavor obviously struck a high note garnering 11 Tony nominations in 2005, winning six and winning nine Drama Desk Awards. When Light In The Piazza first appeared, I obtained the CD but couldn’t get into the music. One who saw the show on Broadway stated it was a visual show. I was able to catch the PBS live broadcast from Lincoln Center, and found the statement to be true, proving it is not the run of the mill Broadway show.

Under the judicious direction of Bartlett Sher working hand in glove with Jonathan Butterell who designed the musical staging, The Light In The Piazza first appeared as a novella written by Elizabeth Spencer published in The Yorker in 1960. Adam Guettel wrote the music and lyrics and Craig Lucas wrote the book for this breathtaking musical.

Last night I heard an audience member state during Intermission he was waiting for the song he could sing on the way home. Although the powerful music is memorable, it isn’t that kind of musical either. Chances of the songs hitting the radio waves are slim, but then there’s always someone who could come along to prove me wrong. Being different and unique might startle, destroying expectations, giving way to a breath of fresh air. This is one musical with a memorable story supported by powerful music.

With guidebook in hand, Margaret Johnson (Christine Andreas) returns to Florence with her daughter Clara (Katie Rose Clarke) for the fist time since she and her husband, Roy (Craig Bennett) spent their honeymoon before WW II. It can’t be quite the same and she knows it. The guidebook fills in cracks for Margaret since Roy remained in their hometown of Winston-Salem North Carolina as a high executive of a cigarette company partly from demands of his job and partly because of self-imposed restrictions filling gaps in his life with work.

Andreas not only has a voice to make the angels sing taking the breath away, she has the capacity to reveal Margaret’s outside southern lady persona as well as the inside agonies of an over protective mother.

Wild with bright-eyed enthusiasm for everything she sees, Clarke’s golden voice transmits the innocence of a woman-child. Her beauty speaks to the 26-year-old she is. Her behavior exemplifies the behavior of a 10-year-old. Margaret attempts to keep her close at hand in a motherly protective way. Clarke made her Broadway debut playing Clara for seven months. She owns Clara.

No one anticipates the roles a gust of wind, Clara’s hat taking flight, caught by a young dashing Florentine, Fabrizio Naccarelli (David Burnham) with the two falling in love on the spot. Burnham’s voice makes the heart stand still at the same time giving an honest believable Fabrizio. Try as she might to keep the two separated, fate defies Margaret’s desperate intentions.

Wherever they go, there he is containing a sixth sense of knowing before they do. Early in the game he is with his Father, Signor Naccarelli played by David Ledingham who projects an Italian father full of exploding life.

Voices, lyrics, music and personalities play off and with each other reflecting superficial and hidden emotions of passion, fear, anxiety, and courage.

The stunning impressive set engulfs the Buell stage with a taste of Florence and Rome. Designed by Michael Yeargan, there are moments when the set appears as a blueprint rather than the final finished piece. This particularly shows up in the Naccarelli’s gracious apartment. With the set pieces tall and gray, the walls cry out for some relief of tall and gray. The set, of course, is suggestive with their lavish table setting, but the starkness of the gray walls competes for attention against the brilliant scenario created by the actors. The lighting designed by Christopher Akerlind frequently brings the grayness to life with brilliant and soft colors speaking directly to the scene playing out at the moment. The brilliant lighting effects work in harmony with the story. Softer lighting in the Naccarelli’s apartment would erase the barren distraction.

Jonathan Hammond juices up Fabrizio’s brother, Giuseppe with brotherly combat, competition and teasing. His Father halfway apologies to Margaret that there is always one in the family who lacks maturity. Giuseppe’s antics come naturally and with ease for Hammond. With an actor of less expertise, it would be all too easy for Giuseppe’s clowning around to come across in a forced manner, but Hammond rolls with Giuseppe’s rhythm.

The blending of English and Italian plays beautifully in the context of the story. There are several wonderful moments when Fabrizio who speaks little English struggles to communicate with Clara. The lyrics in Italian speak for themselves hardly needing translation. Emotion knows no separation when it comes to mere words no matter how they are spelled.

Along with Margaret’s struggle to know what to do and when to put a stop to the budding love affair, she finds courage to stand up as woman against her husband who thinks he knows all the answers to every question. Played by John Procaccino Roy reveals a pungent side of Margaret’s life that is anything but romantic. Strong, verbose, authoritative Procaccino gives insight and powerful shudders in his brief moments on stage highlighting insight into Margaret and Clara and their life in Winston-Salem.

In the process Clara finds courage to stand up against her mother revealing accumulated perceptions of what it is like to be controlled every moment, being protected, having decisions constantly made. Her moments of being lost in the streets of Florence, facing inscrutable people eager to prey on young girls, her frightening realization that something is wrong with her, are all played out by everyone with honest believability and insight into a world a great many people know very little about.

The songs may not be memorable enough to sing on the way home, but there exists several lines, particularly from Margaret and Signor Naccarelli that ring with solid truth off the top of their heads as a result of searching within themselves.

Wendy Bergamini gives Franca, Giuseppe’s wife spit and fire in the delight of instructing Fabrizio in English, standing up to her raucous husband and standing up for Clara, declaring “she has a right to fight for her love. We should all fight for our lovers,” after Clara comes unglued when she finds Fabrizio kissing Giuseppe.

Diana Dimarzio tempers the Naccarelli family as Signora Naccarelli, Fabrizio’s mother, a role that also could all too easily became a body on stage. Even in the background Dimarzio provides her with a three dimensional personality particularly in the midst of the fracas. Stepping close to the audience with a glint in her eye and a wry smile musing, “I’ll have to explain to you what is going on.”

When confusion overtakes Fabrizio’s Father, when it appears the wedding is off, the double scene depicting Margaret and Clara in Rome with Clara despondent beyond consoling and Fabrizio in Florence with his family wanting to die from baffled heartbreak has to be one of the most poignant scenes ever witnessed on a stage, a picture worth a thousand words with a rich musical background, and a cast who completely gives themselves to their roles.

The questions raised in the musical are universal. However, the answers aren’t designed to fit everyone finding themselves in a like situation. The answers and the agonizing search belong to these people alone.

The orchestra conducted by James Lowe becomes an integral character in its own right.

The Light In The Piazza playing through April 8 creatively entertains, brings hard cold truthful wisdom to the forefront, tells a magnificent story brimming with the celebration of life, flirts with honesty that has to be dug deep to uncover, courage, magical love, poignant moments, music that wondrously flows, lyrics that tumble as an extension of personalities, humor that softens the edges melded together by a cast and crew that own their moment in history on the Buell stage. Would the run could be longer. Would that everyone could and would take advantage and call for reservation. It holds the promise of a very honest human story, resonating in skillions of lives taking musical concepts to a new level.