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Stage Review: PICT gets Wilde with family musical
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Christopher Rawson
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
As if it weren't enough to stage a subscription season of heavyweights Shakespeare, Wilde and Synge, Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre is now double-dipping, overlapping Wilde's elegant adult comedy "An Ideal Husband" (through Saturday), with a brief world premiere run of a small family musical, "Wilde Tales."
Adapted by composer/playwright Bruce Dow from two of Oscar Wilde's moral and melancholy fairy tales, "The Happy Prince" and "The Selfish Giant," it is not, of course, just for children.
In fact, Dow argues in an articulate program essay that it isn't at all what now passes for children's entertainment, because the great fairy tales are usually defanged, "Disney-fied" and "Barney-ized," edited for political correctness and anything unpleasant.
Dow identifies a standard contemporary children's plot, similar to many sitcoms: simple misunderstanding, generic sadness, happy resolution, warm fuzzies. No characters (he cites the Harry Potter books as honorable exceptions) ever face "abandonment, imprisonment, torture or death by eating," as in the classic fairy tales.
Even these two Wilde tales fall short of that grisly, zestful Brothers Grimm mode. But both do end in death and carry a surprisingly stern moral lesson (nonsectarian but Christian) about personal responsibility.
At 45 minutes, "The Happy Prince" is the more elaborate parable. The prince is a bejeweled statue overlooking the city he used to rule, in despair over human meanness and greed. He uses a small sparrow to strip off his jewels and gold leaf to succor the poor. But society does not change, and statue and sparrow end up on the dust heap, honored only in heaven.
"The Selfish Giant" is shorter (30 minutes) and simpler. The giant starts by exiling children from his garden, which reverts to perpetual winter. When he relents, he is blessed with happiness, but he, too, must eventually die, to be rewarded by the Christ who suffered little children to come unto him.
Both stories breathe a non-doctrinaire, humanistic socialism, but they are also rich in the sense of human fallibility that I find redolent of Wilde's own end, crushed by social hypocrisy.
Both tales are directed by Sheila McKenna, choreographed by Andre Koslowski and musically directed by Melissa Yanchak with disarming simplicity, readers-theater style, in which actors provide their own narration. David Cabot (a fine giant) and Kelsey Robinson are the most accomplished in the ensemble of five, and Kelly Krepin DeFade is the principal dancer.
Dow's score -- some 20 brief pieces in each tale -- is modern, one might say Sondheimesque, without his rich melody but with a commanding presence, realized by five musicians and well sung, except for muddy lyrics in some ensemble numbers.
So are these stories for children or adults? Both, of course, depending on whether your children can tolerate sadness in their fables, or whether you can tolerate moral imperatives in your entertainment.
Wilde Tales
Pittsburgh City Paper
By Ted Hoover
May 29, 2008
It sounds like the beginning of a really bad SNL skit: "A Children's Story by Oscar Wilde." But the reality of Wilde Tales, receiving its world premiere with Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, turns out to be something quite different.
Wilde did write short stories for children (he had two kids of his own, after all), and Wilde Tales is a musical dramatization of his "The Happy Prince" and the slightly better known "The Selfish Giant." Both offer the same sort of message -- how the innocent must suffer for the greater good -- and both are heavily perfumed with wacky Christian allegories about sacrifice, death and rebirth. And since the stories reflect the inside of Wilde's Art Noveau mind as well as the Victorian-era perception of humanity -- that it was fairly rotten -- they are curious tales to tell children. In both stories, the main characters die ... but it's a happy ending, see, because they go to live with God.
During the first half, "Prince," I was wondering just who the audience was supposed to be for this show: The material's a little too bleak and removed for children, and more cartoonish than adults would care for. Bruce Dow's musical score (he's also librettist and lyricist) seemed promising, although I wasn't crazy about the Fantasticks-styled framework: A bunch of actors assemble to tell a story using old costumes and props from a trunk. Nothing was less than skilled, but by the same token, nothing was standing out.
It's in the second act that Wilde Tales really takes off. The story "Selfish Giant" is Wilde at the top of his game -- the structure is perfect and Wilde's words and images gorgeous -- and Dow's musicalization is just ... shimmering. That's really the only word for it: The second half simply shimmers.
A good deal of that is due to Sheila McKenna's direction, which manages the trick of being invisible and superlative at the same time. Andre Koslowski's expressive choreography and Melissa Yanchak's musical direction provide essential back-up to the wonderfully supple and focused performances of David Cabot, Kelley Krepin DeFade, Joshua Desjardins, Jamie Fair and Kelsey Robinson. And a big shout-out to Meredith S. Murphy for her lovely costume design.
I'm still not sure how much kids will like it, but if you can drag them away from Grand Theft Auto IV, it's your perfect reward.
Grim and grisly, PICT's 'Tales' manages to entertain
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
By Alice T. Carter
Saturday, May 24, 2008
You can't help but admire the craftsmanship of Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre's "Wilde Tales."
The world premiere of Bruce Dow's stage adaptation of two short tales Oscar Wilde wrote for children opened Thursday at the Charity Randall Theatre in Oakland. Separated by a 15-minute intermission, "The Happy Prince" and "The Selfish Giant" run a scant 90 minutes.
Director Sheila McKenna has assembled a first-rate cast of talented and skilled performers. A small orchestra of seven musicians underscores much of the production with Dow's lovely and appropriate music. Gianni Downs' spare sets are nonetheless filled with details that anchor the two short plays in specific locations.
If only the two stories weren't so grim. Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre has been promoting the production as an entertainment for adults and children. Both stories have morally uplifting agendas about sharing, sacrifice and decency.
"The Happy Prince" is about a statue and a sparrow that sacrifice much to relieve the misery of the unfortunate. "The Selfish Giant" is about a giant who recognizes the error of refusing to share his garden with the neighborhood children.
The few children in attendance at Thursday's opening appeared to be contentedly connected to the action. The plays are upbeat and intelligent, and there's a lot of comic details along the way.
But both tales contain those grisly details so well loved by Victorians and Edwardians for whom they were written. There's a sick baby near death and a little match girl who fears being beaten by her father. The statue has its sapphire eyes plucked out and the sparrow dies of the cold while providing support for them. The Selfish Giant's reward is to die and be led to heaven by Jesus -- who is identified by references to the bloody wounds on his hands and feet.
Those who know Wilde's own story and his trial and incarceration for "gross indecency" also might find a creepy subtext in the Giant's relationship with the young boy.
Director Sheila McKenna keeps her ensemble cast of storytellers moving at a sprightly pace. She also gives each member of her ensemble cast some vignettes and cameos in which to shine.
David Cabot amuses in his roles as a series of know-it-all townspeople, a struggling playwright and the Selfish Giant. Joshua Desjardins lends interest to his role as the Happy Prince statue. Kelsey Robinson provides abundant humor as a defiant child, and Jamie Fair gets several occasions to showcase her lovely voice.
But the pace slows whenever choreographer Andre Koslowski's extended dance numbers take over. They're ably executed by Kelley Krepin DeFade, a thoroughly lithe and athletic dancer; they just need to be shorter.
The show is virtually sung throughout with about 20 numbers, including an overture and curtain call music.
With gentle tweaking, edits and refocusing of some elements, "Wilde Tales" could prove a fine family entertainment.
