Date of viewing: February 19 @ 8:00 PM
Location: The Citadel Centre for Dance
Produced by First Act Productions
This review is going to get into some pretty critical criticism, so I'm going to start off by saying that this production actually gets a rating of recommended. The song cycle by Jason Robert Brown gets painted on a new sort of canvas in this production, in which Luke Opdahl (Dirctor and Choreographer... surprisingly without a bio in the program) has opted to use the material primarily as the score for dance performances, while maintaining a live performance of the songs.
The pacing was good, and the time passed quickly. A good evening out with a company that displays innate talent and good potential.
The creative team and all performers are young and ambitious to take on material that is a difficult as it is rich to mine. For this I give them encouragement and appreciation. The shortcomings of this production, therefore, were not due to lack of ability, but, I feel, lack of experience, which will come with time and with doing more of this sort of thing, which I hope they will do.
Now, my specific criticisms:
The idea of combining dance with the performance of these pieces held a lot of potential, and was a big part of my desire to see this production. It was at its strongest when the singers and dancers had a certain amount of interplay. Unfortunately, those moments were too few and far between, with the singers too often relegated to far upstage, doing a modified park and bark. I felt to a certain extent that Mr. Opdahl was unsure of the focus and emotional through lines of each of the four characters (this is a song cycle without continuous plot, but there is still emotional development). I also found a lack of clarity about where the focus should be (on the singers or the dancers) and for a great deal of the show, the two elements (song and dance) competed with each other rather than complimented each other.
Of the four singers, who sadly were not given a more active role in the staging, Donna Lajeunesse was a the clear stand out, inhabiting each character she sang and giving a clear dramatic line to her performances.
Sam Moffatt (also the music director who did a fine job in getting a good sound and balance from his singers and his band) had a clear and strong voice, but too often fell into the persona and stance of what I can only describe as "the cool and soulful white guy". Being too comfortable with his songs, the elements of pain and confusion were missing from King of the World, and the longing and peace of flying home were likewise absent. Nicole Strawbridge and Kevin Wong sang well, but lacked any specificity of character. I would be curious to know how much time they had working on character work with the director.
Opdahl's choreography shows good potential. I found myself at the end of Act I, however, noticing a general lack of levels. For example, I felt the number of times dancers were down on the floor, for example, could be counted on one hand. This was, however, remedied in the second act, so it's likely just a matter of this need to experiment more and expand his vocabulary as a choreographer. The moments when the choreography was clear and emotive (the pas de deux in I'd Give It All For You, for example, it was clearly its strongest. However, when that focus was missing the results could be muddled or confusing. For example, I was unsure until the last 30 seconds of Christmas Lullaby whether the dancer was an avatar for the singer, or an image in the singer's mind of her child to be. As it turned out (a little to my disappointment), it was the former.
The dancing corps uniformly had energy and talent, some more developed than others. In many of the group numbers, especially, faces were either unemotive, or inconstantly emotive given the music.
Criticisms aside, it was great to see a group of young artists tackling such meaty material on their own. It's almost an impossible task, and getting even half way to impossible, is an achievement. In this case, I feel they got much further than that. Despite my criticisms, I hope this company will continue to tackle complex and difficult pieces. I was at no point bored, and despite metaphorical stumbles, I think they never really mis-stepped so badly as to lose the path.
I have no doubt that the talented performers of this production will continue to grow in the craft and I hope they keep tacking ambitious projects like this one.
In summary, there is good talent on showcase in this production, and though I didn't get much new insight from this production, it was certainly an enjoyable evening. I hope to see more from this creative team and from these performers in the future.