Firstly an admission, as this is a Mountview Academy
student production, if it had been terrible, I wouldn’t have had the heart to
rip it to shreds and would have let it pass by without comment. However, it was
truly wonderful and well deserves all the praise it can get.
Only last week we were
mightily impressed by Floyd Collins, currently playing at the Southwark
Playhouse, so we were hugely looking forward to this later Tony award winning work
by the same composer, Adam Guettel, with a book by Craig Lucas, based on a
novella by Elizabeth Spencer. Set in Tuscany in 1953, the story follows a
young American woman, Clara, on holiday with her mother, who meets and falls in
love with a local lad, Fabrizio. Their fledgling romance is thwarted by the
mother and it is only as the story unfolds that we find out the cause of the
mother’s disapproval.
As the young couple, we had
Kayleigh Louise-Smith with a bell-like singing voice as Clara and Nik Parks as the
love-struck Florentine, again with a great voice, conveying total emotion whilst speaking and singing much of his role in Italian. I often have problems with students
playing much older characters, but the standout in the entire cast was the
incredible Joanna O’Hare, as Margaret, Clara’s mother. She is an amazing musical
theatre performer with great range and control and a fantastic actress to boot.
I had to look at her biography during the interval and she’s not even 21 until
the end of this month. Look out for her gracing a West End stage soon.
As the story progresses the focus of the piece becomes a mother's
desire for only the best for their child, whatever it takes, and Margaret's
initial maternal protectiveness becomes something darker, eventually at the
expense of her own relationship with her husband.
Providing great support, again
playing much older, Rhys Ruggerio and Robyn Grange made me eat my words yet
once more giving marvellous performances as Fabrizio’s parents and Joseph
Giaccone, as Fabrizio’s ne’er do well brother and Alessandra D’Aveno, as his
long suffering wife were consummate performers. These four, together with Nik
Parks, have a terrific act two opening number of Italian family squabbling,
during which the mother’s asides to the audience reveal she is wise to her
husband’s extra marital dalliances, but she turns a blind eye for the sake of
her family.
With Margaret and Clara’s
plans gaining momentum, their secret comes close to being exposed and the
desire of a mother to fulfil the dreams of her daughter becomes dangerously all
consuming.
The five piece band of
strings, clarinet & piano were perfect and the entire cast did Mountview
proud. I was enthralled throughout and I cannot believe that there has not been
a professional run of this show in London, but really with a student production of this quality, who cares? The future of musical theatre is in very safe hands
indeed.
Booking until 3 March 2012, only one day left, hurry! The Light on the Piazza
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