Review: PASSION at Blank Theatre Company

In the wake of Stephen Sondheim’s death in 2021, retrospectives of his life and work appeared across the world, from the West End to Broadway, from concerts in New York to small cabarets here in Chicago. And while many of these tributes brought out deep cuts from Sondheim’s oeuvre (I had never heard any song from ANYONE CAN WHISTLE until just recently), one of the composer’s major musicals—PASSION—was conspicuously missing. Then again, even before his passing, professional productions of the musical were few and far between. But now, Blank Theatre Company shines a light on this underappreciated work in a pleasant production with stirring performances that are only occasionally blunted by the limitations of a claustrophobic venue. The production runs through August 10 at Lincoln Park’s Greenhouse Theater Center.

With music and lyrics by Sondheim and a book by James Lapine (their third collaboration as a creative team), PASSION follows the creation and breakdown of a love triangle in 1860s Milan. Captain Giorgio Bachetti (Evan Bradford) has been transferred to a rural outpost and must leave his lover Clara (Rachel Guth) for long stretches at a time. Once at the new outpost, Giorgio meets and develops a friendship with the Fosca (Brittney Brown), a colonel’s sick cousin who is prone to fits of melancholy. As the musical progresses, Giorgio weighs his feelings for the two women, wondering if passion might be far more complicated, and terrifying, than he had ever thought possible.

Blank has gained a reputation for successfully mounting traditionally large-scale musicals in smaller, often storefront venues. And director Danny Kapinos has developed a creative style that conjures up entire locales using as few props and set pieces as possible. Under his guidance, a slab of a ruined house acts as a lovers’ bed and memories play out behind a translucent gray scrim (Hayley E Wallenfeldt’s inventive scenic design is appropriately dreamy and melancholy). Due to the space’s lack of depth, some moments need to be played across the front of the stage with characters standing side by side. In some cases, this necessary blocking creates a greater sense of intimacy, such as when Giorgio and Fosca are “lying in bed” together, side by side. The two characters on edge and barely touching or facing one another serves to make their passion for one another even more sexually charged. Other scenes, though, end up feeling crowded for both the actors as the audiences, such as during meal scenes when all the soldiers line up side by side (it took me a minute to even realize they were having dinner as opposed to, say, waiting for a uniform inspection). PASSION certainly can be designed and produced as a chamber musical of sorts, and Kapinos has provided a strong blueprint for doing so if some of these larger crowd scenes can be made slightly more manageable.

PASSION is also arguably Sondheim’s most psychologically complex musical, and initial audiences didn’t know what to make of a handsome young captain falling for a woman as weak and psychologically tormented as Fosca. Legend has it that during the musical’s original run on Broadway, someone from the balcony yelled “Die, Fosca!” during one of the character’s nervous breakdowns. But—perhaps because we now live in an era when audiences are more sensitive to the plights of women, especially when it comes to psychological and sexual abuse—Blank’s Fosca is to be pitied but is not pitiful, damaged but not broken. This careful balancing act speaks to Brown’s talents as an actress. She smartly plays down some of Fosca’s breakdowns, refusing to turn them into spectacles any more than they absolutely need to be. In Brown’s care, Fosca feels fully realized and mature despite how other characters may treat her as a child or, worse yet, an animal.

Not so for Bachetti, though. Bradford’s captain is more sensitive, more unsure of himself than I have seen the character played on other occasions, which is to say that Bradford makes the musical’s hero more human rather than a stock romantic figure. His Bachetti is one filled with doubts, one who wonders what role passion can ever play in a life so strictly regimented as his. And given Bradford pleasing, powerful tenor, it’s easy to understand how Bachetti ended up in such a fraught love triangle in the first place. Similarly, Guth gives greater complexity to Clara, turning her from a two-dimensional ingenue into a sensitive yet pragmatic woman trapped by circumstance but sympathetic to her lover’s conflicted feelings.

In fact, I think it’s safe to say that, despite any other faults or quibbles, Blank now has a reputation for featuring some of the best young musical theater talents in the city, thanks in large part to the music direction of Aaron Kaplan. It’s the rare music director who can make Sondheim work for his singers; it’s even rarer to have one who can make his singers work for Sondheim, but that is precisely what Kaplan has accomplished here. And conductor Evelyn Ryan deserves credit for re-orchestrating Sondheim’s score for a small orchestra and venue.

Chicago Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

1. RENT (Highland Park Players)

7.2% of votes

2. HAIRSPRAY (Uptown Music Theater of Highland Park)

7.1% of votes

3. DREAMGIRLS (The Drama Group)

6.5% of votes

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