Review: Piazza Tour Beams!

The national tour of Adam Guettel's The Light in the Piazza is like a beacon on the dim streets of the City by the Bay.  Its delicate melodies and breath-taking scenes have warmly ushered in the 2006-07 Best of Broadway season.  The Lincoln Center Theater production directed by Bartlett Sher, with a book by Craig Lucas and music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, began its first national tour in San Francisco August 1.

The Light in the Piazza details the visit of Americans, Margaret Johnson and her daughter Clara, to summertime Florence, Italy.  While there, Clara, a special child, finds the adoration of an Italian schoolboy, Fabrizio.  Their love blossoms, and despite Margaret's efforts to control the situation and her daughter, she is faced with a difficult decision in a foreign country.

Complete with the trademark Italian flourishes and gesticulation, the Florentine streets of Elizabeth Spencer's source novel are brought to life blissfully by the entire company.  During the opening song, "Statues and Stories," the whirlwind of bicycle bells and strolling couples in the yellow dawn relaxes the audience, carrying them into the romance of 1953 Italy.

Starring as Clara, the beautiful ingénue, Elena Shaddow shines!  Her stunning voice fits expertly with Guettel's award-winning orchestrations.  Like the relief of a child's laugh to pierce a silence, Shaddow's Clara is immediately embraced from the moment she steps out of her lit corridor during the overture.  She skillfully finds the poise in Clara's struggle between adult playfulness and maturity.

Shaddow's talent is matched only by her love-interest, Fabrizio Naccarelli, played by David Burnham (previously the Broadway understudy).  Burnham truly excels in the role…especially during his first ballad, "Il Mondo Era Vuoto," where he drips passion so deeply no translation is necessary.  One can't resist patting him assuredly on the back as he daintily courts Clara – or sharing his agony in the rhythmic chaos of "Aiutami."  In short (both in height and syntax), he is magnificent.

With national tours come distinctly different voices and representations, yet Christine Andreas' characterization of the over-protective mother, Margaret Johnson, seemed incomplete.  In speech, she bounces between dialects of Southern Belle and British Madam.  In song, she sounds to be reaching for the notes, only finding them just barely enough to tightly balance.  Margaret demands attentiveness in plot-shifting moments or quick humor to break awkwardness – something Andreas didn't quite carry in some scenes.  However, so early in the run, Andreas has time and room to fill the shoes of a vastly challenging role.

Herself the mother of a special-needs child, Andreas says she "understands Margaret very much" in that regard, which was abundantly clear in her exceptional interaction with Shaddow, as an honorable mother cloaked in urgency.

David Ledingham deserves a nod as Signor Naccarelli, who exudes the necessary charming slickness opposite Andreas in "Let's Walk."  Additionally, Laura Griffith as the jealous-ridden Franca (a role she originally understudied on Broadway) is bitingly fierce with the precise button-pushes during "The Joy You Feel."

Technically the production is flawless.  None of the music has been lost, with a 15-piece orchestra (a luxury too many national tours are without) smoothly singing the score.  Michael Yeargan's scenery transfers fluidly from Lincoln Center's curtain-less thrust stage to traditional prosceniums, with the gold-washed Romanic columns and café-lined esplanades.  Catherine Zuber's Tony Award-winning costumes leave one in awe, as in the Naccarelli's living room with the cast in soothing pastels from earring to boot, awash in Christopher Akerlind's brilliant lighting.  Jonathan Butterell's original musical staging emotes precisely, especially after the heart-tearing fiasco in the church – with a cage of chairs distancing the mother hen from her lost chick.

Both Burnham and Shaddow are as delightful in-person as on-stage.  Shaddow shared that, despite studying Italian at NYU, she is only about as good at the language as her character.  Burnham entertainingly polled fans' opinions of changes to the show – namely the addition of glasses to Fabrizio's introductory costume.  In something as non-intrusive as spectacles, technically they added to the transformation of his character.  Their quick removal symbolizes, at least to me, Clara helping him see clearly – love at first sight (excuse the pun).

The Light in the Piazza also features Jonathan Hammond (Giuseppe Naccarelli) and Diane Sutherland (Signora Naccarelli), with Craig Bennett, Wendi Bergamini, Jane Brockman, Laurent Giroux, Sean Hayden, Leslie Henstock, Prudence Wright Holmes, John-Charles Kelly, Evangelia Kingsley, Adam Overett, and Brian Sutherland.

Having only left rehearsal in Boise three weeks ago, The Light in the Piazza is already in great shape, utilizing San Francisco (its first stop in a year-long tour) as a space to stretch its wings.  The production is sure to delight theatre-goers nation-wide.  The Light in the Piazza plays San Francisco's Orpheum Theatre until August 27, then continues to Cincinnati's Aronoff Theatre from September 5 to 17.  For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.piazzaontour.com.

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