Review - I Married Wyatt Earp

Under Artistic Director Cara Reichel, the Prospect Theater Company has earned a reputation for presenting unconventional musicals that explore interesting topics and their newest entry, I Married Wyatt Earp, co-produced with New York Theatre Barn as part of 59E59 Theater's "Americas Off Broadway" series, is no exception.

Suggested in part by I Married Wyatt Earp: The Recollections of Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp, a popular memoir from material collected and edited by Glenn G. Boyer which was taken out of circulation after numerous factual disputes, composer Michele Brourman, lyricist/bookwriter Sheilah Rae and bookwriter Thomas Edward West start with the ripe idea of presenting a familiar American legend - the gunfight at the O.K. Corral - and exploring the buildup to it from a fresh angle; through the eyes of the wives of its participants. Unfortunately, despite the musical's title and opening scene pointing us in that direction, the dramatic links between the historic shootout and the on-stage rivalries and sufferings of these frontier women are only loosely suggested, leaving the cast of 11 women to play out a second act that barely contains a plot and has built little more than superficial empathy for its characters.

The musical commences in 1944, with Josie Earp (Carolyn Mignini) frustrated with her consultant role in director John Ford's Hollywood rendering of the event, titled My Darling Clementine. Aside from having her name changed for the movie, it seems her expert account of the facts is being disputed by another consultant, Allie Earp (Heather MacRae), the widow of Wyatt's brother Virgil. When the two are reunited over whatever bottles of alcohol are available, inhibitions are lowered and the two lifetime rivals start hashing out what did and didn't happen.

In flashbacks we see how young Josie (Mishaela Faucher), a Jewish girl from Brooklyn whose family relocates to San Francisco, escapes her suffocating lifestyle by joining a traveling, all-female Gilbert and Sullivan troupe. When they arrive for a gig in Tombstone, Arizona, it seems the saloon that contracted them is now under new ownership; that of the Earp boys. Young Allie Earp (Carol Linnea Johnson) and her sisters-in-law, all former prostitutes, assume the actresses to be a part of that same profession but they're willing to give to them a chance as long as they bring in customers and keep their business on stage.

Marriage in those parts was rather loosely defined, due to the unavailability of proper authorities and paperwork, so Josie doesn't see it as such a big deal when she breaks off from Sheriff Johnny Behan because she's fallen for Wyatt Earp, whose common-law spouse, Mattie (Anastasia Barzee), has been going mad from laudanum addiction.

Meanwhile, Hattie Earp (Laura Hankin), the daughter of James and Bess (Carol Linnea Johnson), has taken up with one of the outlaw cowboys and Doc Holliday's abused Hungarian pro-gambler mistress, Kate (Ariela Morgenstern), interrupts each act with a solo about how lousy men are.

But they're among the better selections in the slow moving score, though Bruce Coughlin's chamber orchestrations offer an elegantly somber sound. With no men around, the book tends to describe more events than it dramatizes and the lyrics consist of more declarative statements than emotions.

When the text allows young Josie to be a feisty, adventurous heroine, Faucher is winningly up to the task, but Mignini's older Josie is weakly acted and sung. MacRae, the company's most familiar face, and Palumbo combine to make Allie a sturdy and hearty survivor.

Placed on one of the smaller stages of 59E59, Ann Bartek's two-level set leaves Little Room for Reichel and choreographer Joe Barros (Artistic Director of New York Theatre Barn) to keep their large company moving comfortably.

I Married Wyatt Earp might be seen as an interesting work in progress if it hadn't been workshopped and in development since 1994. The idea remains a good one, so hopefully the authors might come out with guns blaring next time.

Photo of Mishaela Faucher and Karla Mosley by Gerry Goodstein.

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"All the best performers bring to their role something more, something different than what the author put on paper. That's what makes theatre live. That's why it persists."
-- Stephen Sondheim

The grosses are out for the week ending 6/5/2011 and we've got them all right here in BroadwayWorld.com's grosses section.

Up for the week was: THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE (2.3%), SPIDER-MAN TURN OFF THE DARK (0.8%), ANYTHING GOES (0.4%),

Down for the week was: BABY IT'S YOU! (-17.0%), CHICAGO (-15.1%), BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL (-14.5%), RAIN: A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES ON BROADWAY (-14.2%), PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT (-14.2%), MEMPHIS (-13.5%), BORN YESTERDAY (-13.2%), THE MOTHERF**KER WITH THE HAT (-12.7%), MARY POPPINS (-12.1%), THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (-11.6%), BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGDHAD ZOO (-9.1%), THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES (-9.1%), ARCADIA (-8.9%), THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST (-7.9%), THE NORMAL HEART (-7.4%), JERUSALEM (-7.0%), CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (-6.4%), THE ADDAMS FAMILY (-6.2%), SISTER ACT (-5.2%), ROCK OF AGES (-4.3%), JERSEY BOYS (-4.2%), HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING (-3.2%), Million Dollar Quartet (-2.7%), GHETTO KLOWN (-2.6%), MAMMA MIA! (-2.5%), THE LION KING (-0.4%),

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