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Perhaps it was the lighting difficulties that caused a 19-minute curtain delay of "The Light in the Piazza" that brought the thought to mind of another long wait -- the wait for the return of the unabashedly romantic musical.
Well, here it is ensconced at the Aronoff Center for two weeks.
Go to Broadway now and it is filled with dumb jukebox musicals like "Mamma Mia," the agonies of drugs and AIDS in "Rent," witches in Oz burdened with social messages and "Tarzan" swinging by through a multimillion-dollar jungle into creative vapidness according to New York.
But back to the Aronoff. When they finally did get Christopher Akerlind's warm amber lighting to lend its glow to set designer Michael Yeargan's arches in Florence and ruins in Rome, it was both the 1940s and '50s in time and style once again.
Craig Lucas's book from Elizabeth Spencer's 1953 novel joins the protective mother Margaret Johnson (Christine Andreas) and her daughter Clara (Elena Shaddow) on an Italian vacation.
Clara meets a young Italian Fabrizio (David Burnham) in Florence. He retrieves Clara's hat when a gust of wind blows it about the piazza.
Once the hat is caught, Fabrizio moves on to capture Clara's heart. His ardor is such that he makes Romeo's speech at the base of the balcony seem like a telemarketer's sales pitch.
"The Light in the Piazza" isn't quite a complete throwback to those musicals from Rodgers and Hammerstein in the '40s and '50s. Those romances mostly celebrated love in lighter ways until a little darkness crept in at the end, generally in the form of death.
In "Piazza," Lucas's book concerns Clara's condition and romance. The themes of immaturity and love concurrently build tensions. All this is carefully managed by the light hand of director Bartlett Sher.
And composer-lyricist Adam Guettel's score doesn't reach the dramatics in sound that "Carousel" or "The Sound of Music" achieves. These shows traditionally reached their climax with soaring anthems given to mezzo-sopranos.
Instead, for "Piazza," Guettel chooses a smaller but exceedingly rich chamber orchestra sound -- celesta, harp, violin, cello, etc. -- to preserve an intimacy in this story. This music complements; it does not dominate the story.
Of course, the very subtlety of these compositions will not please those audiences who like their musicals to come with an overdose of brass and skimpily clad kick lines.
More than a few patrons of this Tuesday opening night of the Broadway Across America 2006-07 left after act one. Most likely, they apparently found this musical, which leans unapologetically to the operatic than to the musical form, unsatisfying.
But in lieu of trombones, Christine Andreas's sensitive performance skillfully balances Margaret's protectiveness and her desire to see her immature daughter emotionally fulfilled.
But the inner compassion Margaret feels for her daughter's happiness at last dramatically defeats her maternal sheltering when she sings in almost a prayer for Clara, "Run if you can/And be loved." It's a soaring vocal moment.
Andreas, who spent her own early career, singing the romantic leads in revivals of some of those aforementioned Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, is a little more humorous as Margaret than Victoria Clark, who sang the role on Broadway in 2005.
But Andreas has a command of Margaret. The charm is there but so is the emotional muscularity when it comes to her daughter's welfare and an eventual decision to assert herself in her own disappointing marriage.
Vocally, Andreas is faultless in navigating difficult phrasing, intonations and unpredictable tempos. Her years of singing experience pay off handsomely here.
The remainder of the cast offers superb support. Elena Shaddow's Clara is carefully sketched so that she projects a maturing spirit trying to scale the walls of psychological impairment.
Her Clara is childlike but not merely childish in this difficult but sweet role. Shaddow's songs, though, sometimes give Clara a maturity that she is not supposed to have. Still, this is no fault of Shaddow's vocalizing that must be full because the music is expansive.
Equally important is Burnham as Fabrizio. The joy, the enthusiasm he infuses into the acting and his passionate singing raises "The Light in the Piazza" several notches up from mere melodrama.
The final effect Burnham brings is a celebration of the power of love.
THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA, reviewed Tuesday night at the Aronoff Center, 650 Walnut St., downtown. Playdates: Tuesdays-Sundays through Sept. 17. Tickets: $20-$60; (513) 241-7469.
(C) 2006 The Cincinnati Post. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved
