Lady In The Dark

Play with Music (1941)
by Moss Hart

With Anneke Reich (Liza Elliot), Alex Jacobs (Dr. Brooks), Jonathan Young (Charlie Johnson), Julia Davidovitz (Miranda Curtis), Meg Evans (Maggie Grant), Nate Shaffer (Ben), Caley Chase (Miss Foster, etc.), Eliza Dumais (Alison DuBois, etc.), Ben Gold (Kendall Nesbitt, etc.), Charlie Madison (Russell Paxton, etc.), Zach Smith (Ringmaster, etc.), Sara Taylor (Miss Bowers, etc.)

Liza Elliot (Anneke Reich) is the powerful and driven editor of Allure, a fashion magazine. After consulting Dr. Brooks (Alex Jacobs), about her anxieties, she begins psychoanalysis with him. The play interleaves sections which enact Liza’s dreams, as described in her analytic sessions, and sections which depict the live action of the magazine office. Romantic aspirations and tradeoffs abound, and collide, as Liza comes to explore and to understand more about herself.

If Stephen Sondheim had written a score to accompany the film The Devil Wears Prada (2006), the comedy, starring Meryl Streep, about a fashion editor in the mold of Anna Wintour, the opinionated and powerful editor of Vogue, it might be something like this.

The subject of this play is very much like that of The Devil Wears Prada, with an additional psychological twist. The somewhat minor-inflected Kurt Weill melodies, combined with wryly existential Ira Gershwin lyrics, provide a flavor that is not unlike that which Sondheim might have invented.

The material is also fascinatingly subtle and offbeat in the same way that many Sondheim treatments are. How often does one get to see a nuanced musical about therapy these days? The closest I have seen, recently, is Next To Normal (2008), a considerably less sophisticated treatment of psychological themes than this.

What a treat it was to get to see this show, beautifully produced by Anneke Reich and directed by Abby Armstrong, seniors at Brandeis University, and mounting this production as part of their thesis requirements.

This is not an easy show to pull off.

Weill’s music is not always straightforward; it has lots of modal and inflected themes that require careful attention to render accurately. So, to hear this difficult show performed expertly on opening night (it runs again on Friday evening), was an unexpected and real pleasure.

There is also a fair amount of intricate staging, and some dancing; it is remarkable that this group of students performed this exuberantly, and without any real apparent hitches, on the first night out.

Anneke Reich gave a resonant and affecting performance as Liza Elliot, doing an outstanding job as both actor and singer.

She has a phenomenal voice that comes through both in speaking and singing. It has a contralto warmth that penetrates into its material with a granular organicism and soothing charm.

Her interpretation of the role was also sensitive and insightful, conveying the complexity of the character with subtlety and conviction.

Jonathan Young (Charlie Johnson), as Liza’s colleague and seeming nemesis, offered a strong and swaggering interpretation that gave energy to the role and chemistry to the interaction.

The rest of the cast was also very good.

Though not every moment of vocal ensemble was totally refined, the overall effect was wonderful. Considering how long it takes to work out the kinks in even much easier to perform musicals, this was a genuine accomplishment.

The show was long and a bit late – over two and a half hours, starting at 8:30 – but was done so well that it more than kept my attention throughout.

– BADMan