Review: The Huntington's THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA is Sweepingly Cinematic

The 1962 feature film “Light in the Piazza” was shot on location at the Piazza della Signoria and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and the Via Veneto and Roma Ostiense railway station in Rome, making its technicolor splendor a hard act to follow when the story, based on a 1960 novella by Elizabeth Spencer, was developed for the stage in 2003.

The musical “The Light in the Piazza” – with its Tony Award-winning score by composer and lyricist Adam Guettel and book by Craig Lucas – was first mounted at the Intiman Stage in Seattle, and later at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, before transferring to Broadway’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center, where three of its six 2005 Tony Awards – for Best Scenic Design for Michael Yeargan, Best Costume Design for Catherine Zuber, and Best Lighting Design for Christopher Akerlind – proved that the sumptuous look of the movie could be captured on stage.

The gorgeously atmospheric Huntington production, at the Huntington Theatre through June 15, is making that point once again with scenic designer Andrew Boyce, Costume Designer Alex Jaeger, and, from the original Broadway production, lighting designer Christopher Akerlind providing the perfect look and period feel for the story of the lives and loves of two American tourists, protective mother Margaret Johnson and her brain-injured 26-year-old daughter Clara, and Fabrizio Naccarelli, the sweet young Italian man who falls for Clara, not realizing her limitations, and soon makes plans to marry her.

Set in the summer of 1953, the production, directed in sweeping cinematic style by Huntington artistic director Loretta Greco, doesn’t only look good either. It also sounds great thanks to music director and conductor Andrea Grody and a 12-person orchestra that more than meets the challenges found in the magnificent score by Guettel, the son of composer and writer Mary Rodgers (“Once Upon a Mattress”) and grandson of the iconic Broadway composer Richard Rodgers, the first person to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, now known as an EGOT.

There is no filler nor a single throwaway song in Guettel’s score, which is impressively performed by a cast that includes Broadway veteran Emily Skinner – a Tony nominee for “Side Show,” also seen in “Suffs,” “The Cher Show,” and “The Full Monty” – as Margaret, a role created on film by Olivia de Havilland and on Broadway by Victoria Clark. With dignified comportment, Skinner makes the role her own, using her clarion-clear voice to full advantage on songs including “Statues and Stories,” which captures her character’s first impressions of Florence, “Dividing Day,” telling of her own tenuous marriage back home, and the hopeful closer, “Fable.”

Sarah-Anne Martinez is deeply affecting as the headstrong Clara, a role played on film by Yvette Mimieux and on Broadway by Kelli O’Hara, whose burgeoning love for Fabrizio leads her to defy her mother and seek the independence she’s never had before, expressing her own desires on act one’s “The Beauty Is.” Martinez also achingly conveys Clara’s challenges on the title song following a clash with her mother, and “Hysteria,” a duet with Skinner.

As Fabrizio, Joshua Grosso exhibits both a glorious voice and heartthrob looks and may be just a PBS special away from stardom, if the audience reaction he received at the show’s recent press opening is any indication. Indeed, they may not have known what the exact lyrics were when Grosso sang “Il Mondo Era Vuoto” and “Passeggiata,” but they got the message and hung on his every word nonetheless.

Fabrizio’s abundant charm not only works its magic on Clara but also made him the favorite child of Signor Naccarelli, a bespoke men's clothier, and his wife Signora Naccarelli, played by William Michals and Rebecca Pitcher, respectively. His parents are pleased to see Fabrizio find love, but when signs indicate that Clara may not be his ideal bride, they quickly close ranks around him. Margaret quickly assuages those concerns, however, distracting the father with a moonlight stroll on the richly romantic “Let’s Walk.” After sharing a brief kiss, the pair decide that Fabrizio and Clara’s wedding plans can proceed.

Excellent supporting work is also done by Alexander Ross as Guiseppe, Fabrizio’s upstanding older brother, who may outwork him but will never outshine him, and Rebekah Rae Robles as his wise wife Franca. As Margaret’s stern, all-business husband, Roy Johnson, Rob Richardson is seen only in telephone calls as his character, mercifully for Margaret and Clara, is not on the vacation. In just a few brief scenes, though, we see that marriage to Roy is no honeymoon.