Sierra Boggess, Norm Lewis and Adam Jacobs together in a new musical sounded like a theatre lover’s dream but unfortunately these dependable Broadway veterans can’t overcome Peter Kellogg’s weak book for Monte Cristo, the York Theatre’s world premiere production at Theatre at St. Jean’s. Adapting Alexandre Dumas’s epic 1844 novel of betrayal, vengeance and redeeming love as a musical is a great idea, and maybe after considerable reimagining and rewriting it can work. Peter Flynn directs.
Jacobs plays Edmund, an uneducated young man content with his life thanks to his love, which is reciprocated, for Mercedes (Boggess), a refined young lady who accepts his marriage proposal but before they can wed Villefort (Lewis), a lawyer, has him arrested for treason to protect his fortune and place in society after learning that Edmund unwittingly delivered a letter written by Villefort’s father that is deemed treasonous.
When Edmund escapes from prison 19 years later he seeks his revenge. The events are complicated and Kellogg’s script left me feeling confused. I asked my friend, who had Googled the plot before coming, to make sure I was following correctly. Neither of us had read the book but one should not have to in order to follow a play. The plot wraps up quickly as Edmund settles his scores with ease and the play concludes with a saccharine ending.
I usually appreciate seeing a new musical in the intimacy of Off-Broadway but I felt several elements needed to be enlarged: the story, the space and the running time, which is just over two hours. Fortunately Anne Mundell went light on her scenic design. Siena Zoe Allen and Amanda Roberge created lush costumes.
Kellogg, whose script is also based on Charles Fechter’s play, does better with his lyrics to Stephen Weiner’s beautiful music. The song “Dangerous Times,” sung by the ensemble, could have been written for our times:
“Be careful whom you speak to.
Someone over there is taking note.
Somebody’s writing down who your friends are.
Somebody is recording how you vote.
There’s a man who sits on a shaky throne.
How much longer, only blood will tell.
But the lofty never fall alone.
The innocent are crushed as well.
Edmund and Mercedes have a lovely duet early on with “You Guide Me Home” and Boggess’s gorgeous soprano is moving in “How Did I Get so Far Away?” I am happy to say no one in the cast let loose with the dreadful belting that is so popular on Broadway, but then I wouldn’t have expected Lewis, Boggess or Jacobs to do so. They don’t have to. They have the beautiful, pure voices to just sing.
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