The Light in the Piazza (c) Joan Marcus
☆ Theater: The Light in the Piazza
Presented by Encores! at New York City Center
Premise: The musical The Light in the Piazza, based on Elizabeth Spencer’s 1960 novella, premiered on Broadway in 2005 with songs by Adam Guettel and a book by Craig Lucas. It won six Tony Awards but lost Best Musical to “Spamalot” (SMH, as the kids say). It is 1953 and American Margaret Johnson (Ruthie Ann Miles) and her daughter Clara (Anna Zavelson) are visiting Florence, where Margaret fell in love with her husband Roy (Michael Hayden) years before. Clara meet-cutes the young and very Italian Fabrizio Naccarelli (James D. Gish) as her hat flies off her head and into his heart. Fabrizio’s parents (Ivan Hernandez and Andréa Burns) are happy for their son’s sudden amore. But Margaret is against their growing romance with more than just the usual parental concern, as Clara had an accident as a young girl that affects her mental capacity, which only manifests when she is under stress. After some initial apprehension, Margaret sees the change in Clara and wonders if she has been too overprotective of not only her daughter but her views of the true meaning of love. Spencer’s novel was also made into a film (oddly dropping the first “the” in the title) in 1962 by Guy Green, starring Olivia de Havilland as Margaret and Yvette Mimieux as Clara.
The Light in the Piazza (c) Joan Marcus
My Take: The Encore! Series at City Center has a mission to produce musicals that have fallen out of the public consciousness or haven’t been produced in a while, and while one show per season does fall in this category, the mandate seems to tend towards productions as a jumping off point for a possible Broadway run. Into the Woods transferred last season in a wonderful production by Lear deBessonet, but my all-time favorite Encores! show (The Light in the Piazza is a now a close second) was the revelatory reinvention of Grand Hotel by director and choreographer Josh Rhodes in 2018 which, alas, did not have a life after Encores! The Light in the Piazza should not only transfer to Broadway immediately, but the Tony Awards committee can just rename the Best Actress in a Musical Tony the Ruthie Ann Miles Award now. Miles and Zavelson are the only Asian faces in Florence and while it’s only commented on once (with a gesture by Miles when Fabrizio thinks they are related to the actor Van Johnson), this fact is inescapable visually and seeps into the DNA of Chay Yew’s self-assured production.
The Light in the Piazza (c) Joan Marcus
Most of these Encores! shows are produced in record time, so the design team has to create a lot with basically minimalist presentation. Costume designer Linda Cho, scenic designers Clint Ramos & Miguel Urbino, lighting designer David Weiner and sound designer Megumi Katayama all perform miracles to make us believe we are in Italy. I will confess I am a bit biased to this property as I have loved this musical since it first premiered at Lincoln Center with the peerless Victoria Clark in the lead, but I do also admit that Craig Lucas’s book, which has Margaret occasionally narrate to the audience only when the story has no other choice, is not as elegant as Adam Guttel’s graceful and memorable songs. This is the best musical score of this century for sure. Anna Zavelson, making her New York stage debut, is just breathtaking as Clara. She looks younger than most Claras and also plays up her childish petulance, while her singing is nothing short of glorious. Gish as Farbizio mostly sings in Italian but you can tell what he’s saying through the physicality of his singing and acting. Hernandez and Burns are great as the Naccarellis, with Burns having less to do, but what she does do in her one song almost steals the show. Some might feel this material is a bit slight for a musical, and indeed the big second act drama all stems from a revelation that should have been brought up much earlier. Maybe it’s the Italian setting, with its title already spoiling its romantic intent or maybe it is the Adam Guettel score, but I love this show and adore this production.
The Light in the Piazza (c) Joan Marcus
VIP: Ruthie Ann Miles. This production seems built solely to showcase Miles’ range and talent, and true or not, it certainly does that. The production was moved to this later date because of her role in Sweeney Todd, in which she received a Tony nomination for essentially a cameo role. Miles, who won the Tony for The King and I, has found the role of a lifetime, just as Clark did almost 20 years ago. Her singing is, no surprise, resplendent. The song “The Beauty Is,” however, is especially hard to listen to as it inadvertently calls to mind Miles’ own personal tragedy. She pulls this off magnificently and then to have what is essentially a happy ending (although a cautious one, as the finale song “Fable” insinuates) is a journey I was glad to go on with her.
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