THEATRE REVIEW
Geoff Elliott (Don Quixote) and Kasey Mahaffy (Sancho Panza) in “Man of La Mancha” at A Noise Within (Photo – Craig Schwartz).
Good news for lovers of great musical theater and dreamers both: Pasadena’s A Noise Within (ANW) is jump starting their 2018-19 season with a reprisal of their much-loved 2017 show “Man of La Mancha.”
By Melanie Hooks
It’s easy to see how this show continues to receive standing ovations with solid co-Producing Artistic Director, Geoff Elliott, in the lead as the idealist Don Quixote and exceptional Resident Artist Kasey Mahaffy as his ever-faithful servant Sancho Panza. It’s also easy to feel the thirst of 2018 audiences for a dreamer who crusades against the terrorizing Inquisition and unending human cruelty.
ANW will spend its entire 18-19 season celebrating “outliers – people who have blazed their own trail but nevertheless struggle for acknowledgment and acceptance,” according to a joint statement from Elliot and co-Producing Artistic Director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, who also directs “La Mancha” (as well as its original ’17 production).
In fact, the entire excellent cast minus two Ensemble members returns for this staging, and the addition of Nick Bruno’s beautiful voice as Tenorio is quite welcome.
The voices so sweet that they’ll make you cry belong to the three women: Cassandra Marie Murphy as female lead Aldonza, Cynthia Marty as Maria/Housekeeper, and Cassie Simone as Antonia/Fermina. All three excel in strength, emotion, vocal clarity and tone. My seatmate wept during Murphy’s “Dulcinea” reprise, and early numbers with Marty and Simone showcased them both well. Murphy brims with street smarts and bravado a world away from her recent royal role as Queen Isabel in Henry V. ANW has a strong showing of women behind the scenes, but performances like these make one yearn for more frequent onstage representation as well.
Excellent Resident Artists Jeremy Rabb, Frederick Stuart, and frequent ANW performer Michael Uribe (all standouts in ANW’s recent “Henry V”) bring their characteristic best as supporting players, with Uribe deftly portraying a trio of cynical antagonists to Elliott’s dreamy Quixote.
(L – R) Cassandra Marie Murphy and Geoff Elliott, Cynthia Marty, Jeremy Rabb, and Cassie Simone (Photos – Craig Schwartz).
Director Rodriguez-Elliott shines in the comedic staging of “I’m Only Thinking of Him” and skillful management of players for the brutal torture of Aldonza, which doesn’t veer into the grotesque but allows us to stay with the female lead’s point of view without feeling like we’re complicit in her rape. The balance of cruelty and compassion in “Man of La Mancha” is uneasy in the source material. The 1972 classic film with Peter O’Toole and Sophia Loren feels blunter, less free with this contrast than this staging, and Rodriguez-Elliott deserves full credit for creating an atmosphere in which both an aging nobleman who imagines dragons and state-sponsored torture easily coexist.
The live musical accompaniment directed by Dr. Melissa Sky-Eagle is consistently excellent and lives up to her program promise: “We strive to create this art to bring beauty and grace into the world.” The starkly beautiful set by Fred Kinney and flexible costuming (from medieval to modern military) by Angela Balogh Calin work along with the dependably professional lighting, sound and staging to create a harmonious show firing on all cylinders.
Outliers, you have your first show of the season.
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