Tanglewood, Lenox, MA
July 7, 2018
by Michael J. Moran
 |
| On The Town cast, Photo Courtesy BSO |
A rollicking semi-staged production of Leonard Bernstein’s
first Broadway musical highlighted Tanglewood’s opening weekend and got its
“Bernstein Centennial Summer” tribute to the beloved musical icon whose
half-century presence there is still treasured off to a thrilling start.
The opulent sound of the Boston Pops Orchestra under the
seasoned leadership of Keith Lockhart (ably doubling as the evening’s narrator) in the
lively Overture made it clear that this would be no ordinary “On the Town.”
Marc Kudisch’s commanding baritone slowed things down briefly for New York City
to wake up at 6:00 am in “I Feel Like I’m Not Out of Bed Yet.” After the three
sailors who get a day pass to explore the city then burst into exuberant anticipation
in “New York, New York,” the pace never slackened as the rest of the shown followed
their adventures through the next 24 hours.
There wasn’t a weak link in the cast of Broadway veterans.
As the sailors, Brandon Victor Dixon was an affecting Gabey, Andy Carl an
oversexed Ozzie, and Christian Dante White a kind-hearted Chip. As their love
interests, Georgina Pazcoguin brought balletic grace to Ivy (“Miss Turnstiles”)
Smith, Laura Osnes gave anthropologist Claire De Loone zany sophistication, and
Megan Lawrence invested taxi driver Hildy Esterhazy with brash high spirits. Kudisch’s
dapper judge (Claire’s stuffy fiance) and three characters hilariously played
by Andrea Martin, especially a drunken music teacher, were laugh riots whenever
they appeared.
Much credit goes to director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall
for balancing the urgent forward motion with quiet intervals which allowed
Dixon’s poignant “Lonely Town” and the ensemble’s heartfelt “Some Other Time” their full emotional resonance.
Marshall put the wide but shallow Koussevitzky Music Shed stage to imaginative
use, placing movement and extensive dancing from center to both far sides, with
minimal and multi-functional props. Michael Krass’s costume design richly
rendered the fashions of wartime 1940s New York.
Upcoming programs in Tanglewood’s “Bernstein Centennial
Summer” include: his 1952 one-act Opera “Trouble in Tahiti” (July 12); the 1962
movie “West Side Story” with live BSO accompaniment (July 28); the 1977 song
cycle “Songfest” (August 4); the 1983 full-length opera “A Quiet Place” (August
9); the 1956 Broadway show “Candide” (August 22-23); and a gala celebrity-studded
career-wide selection on his birthday (August 25).
