A couple of summers ago, an off-Broadway show revolved around a composer going mad while he tries to finish an opera based on Melville's "Moby Dick". The team who created and mounted the production now having a pre-New York run at the New Rep in Newton has come closer than most to accomplishing this maddening task. Composer Doug Katsaros, lyricist Mark St. Germaine, director Rick Lombardo, and designer Kristen Loeffler have put together an exhilarating evening of theatre, which, while they haven't fully solved the problem of translating a 19th century 700 page narrative into a music drama, nonetheless sweeps the audience along while it tries. At best, the piece is a very promising work-in-progress.
The music, scored entirely for strings and keyboard, supports the action without leaving many memorable tunes behind. Katsaros has tried to make "An American Opera" without delving into American music, sounding instead like Sondheim and other proficient imitators of early 20th century avant-garde. Perhaps a broader orchestral palette would yield arrangements which didn't start sounding repetitious. St. Germaine's lyrics -- the show is through-sung -- derive from Melville's prose, showing his masterful vocabulary, but leading more than once to lines difficult to fit in a musical phrase. The cast however is uniformly in fine voice and intelligible through some dense passages.
Michael Kreutz as Starbuck, the Quaker First Mate, is impressive both in dramatic confrontations with the captain and in his longings for home. Robin Lister, as Ishmael, the narrator of this whale of a tale, reaches tenor heights without concertizing. Mark Peters, as Ahab, is effective, but hampered by music which doesn't rise to the level of the character's obsession, though it suits his vocal abilities. Dann B. Black brings a massive bass to the mystical savage Queequeg, Ishmael's friend. The youngest cast member, Cyrus Akeem Brooks, as Pip the cabin boy, sings well enough and is a promising actor. His vocal production lags behind older trained cast members and the part, laden with modern-sounding gospel harmonies, seems overwritten, asked to carry too much emotional baggage.
Most of the cast doubles and triples. Brian DeLorenzo is vocally compelling as Peter Coffin, the former whaler, and Elijah, the mad prophet, and diminutively menacing as Fedallah, Ahab's harpooner. Brad Peloquin is heart-breaking as the Captain of the Rachel seeking his son lost overboard while hunting the Whale, and comically smug as Peleg, one of the Quaker investors. Job Emerson is commanding as Father Mapple preaching a sermon on Jonah, but his serio-comic number as the ship's carpenter carving a new peg for Ahab while sneezing seems out of place. Geoffrey P. Burns and Brad Peloquin try to pull off a Gilbert & Sullivan parody as Capt. Boomer and Dr. Bunger, a musical joke which seems even more extraneous.
The remaining five members of the ensemble have their moments. Jim Ansart makes his mark in the second act as Bosun Stubbs, Scott Davis as Captain Gabriel, another of the whale's victims, Nathan Gehan as Tashtego, the Native American harpooner, and Sean McGuirk as Bildad, the more quarrelsome Quaker. This baker's dozen of a crew also shine in several chorale numbers, including "The Final Chase" which ends with Ahab tangled in the harpoon line spiraling down into the deep, while the New Rep's high-ceilinged hall resonates with a thrilling sound, encompassing the audience in a vibrant whole of ship, sea, and sky.
This stunning effect, and all the rest of the action would not be possible without Loeffler's ingenious protean setting coupled with Lombardo's energetic and inventive direction. The show is played in the round, with several rows of the audience place on the small proscenium stage, providing a sense of witness. Central to the action is a climbable mast up to a two-person crow's nest, the only fixed unit. A somewhat off center platform can revolve around this pivot. Outboard of this rectangle are three benches on wheels tied to it, which detach to become whaleboats. A fourth rolling unit at the height of the actual stage becomes Ahab's bridge and other parts of the Pequod as necessary. When the voyage begins, the cast raises climbable ratlines surrounding the playing area. These are real functional hemp, which necessitates everyone working in gloves. The only nautical items besides a lot of rope are a few props including harpoons, and of course, the gold doubloon nailed to the proscenium. (The nameplate of the Pequod, to go down with the ship, might have been a nice additional touch.)
Toni Bratton Eliot's costumes evoke the period and differentiate the characters, and must also allow some very quick changes as the cast switches in and out of some thirty characters. Franklin Messner Jr.'s lighting has just enough special effects to carry the action along without intruding or glaring. Musical director Janet Roma conducts from the keyboard, and given the staging, must depend on singers to find entrances without being able to see her consistently. The choral work was definitely together. The string ensemble is consistently sonorous and consistent.
While this is an evening of exciting theatre, the piece still needs development. There may be too much Melville and not enough drama. It hard to tell what the creative team feels is really important, either in the text or the music. As with most operas, knowing the story helps, but in this case, one also needs to know something about the author and his use of language, not to mention the rather digressive nature of this tale told in retrospect. Previous attempts, however, including Orson Welles' "Moby Dick Rehearsed", have been less successful. But reservations aside, the New Rep has ended this season on a triumphant note.
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