Something borrowed, something new
by Graydon Royce, Star Tribune
October 12, 2010
With a flair for big performances, Keith Rice and Norah Long freshen the chestnut "I Do! I Do!" - at least until the script slows them down.
The "New" Chanhassen Dinner Theatres has charted a course toward more contemporary seas, riding a wave of newer and more buoyant material on the main stage of the suburban playhouse. Meanwhile, in the smaller Fireside Theatre, artistic director Michael Brindisi has asked Keith Rice and Norah Long to revive a musical that was a legend of the "old" Chanhassen. "I Do! I Do!" opened last weekend and it is a curious mix of old and new.
Lest I repeat myself for the umpteenth time, "I Do! I Do!" ran for 22 years beginning in 1971 with David Anders and Susan Goeppinger (both of whom were in the audience Friday night). The show bobbed along well enough and then the two actors got married in real life and propelled the event into a novelty as much as a piece of theater.
This side of picking the Yankees to sweep the Twins in next year's playoffs, you cannot make a safer bet than to wager that Rice and Long will not repeat this phenomenon. Whatever success they enjoy will result from their sweat and toil onstage.
"I Do! I Do!" might be considered the Ur text of today's surfeit of "Midlife, Married, Crisis, I hate my husband, I love my wife, I hate myself" musicals, plays and movies. Writer Tom Jones and composer Harvey Schmidt used Jan de Hartog's play "The Fourposter" to cover 50 years of marriage between Michael and Agnes, beginning shortly after 1900. As such, it has some dusty attitudes and ridiculous conceits. But it also has moments of universal truth and sophistication in its journey from fresh love to old age -- with the humdrum of daily life and the agony of infidelity along the way.
Brindisi, Rice and Long largely succeed with their approach to this hoary stuff. The first act flies along, Rice and Long displaying their flair as performers who dare to have irreverent fun with the material -- almost as if they were sketch players. Chemistry crackles, songs soar on their lovely voices (even if Long is a bit refined for the belting "Flaming Agnes") and their comic instincts slice like razors.
The second act, though, feels weary with its maudlin recitation of real life. The actors have little to do but sit on the big bed that defines Nayna Ramey's set design and yammer on about loving each other and needing each other. Brindisi's pace seems trapped -- that is, he can't spoof this serious stuff, and yet he has to do something to pump air back into the room. A sharp knife aimed at Jones' script would be a good start. Circulating the actors with some motion (and I don't care what the stage directions say) would help.
Chanhassen's technical team is typically strong. Rich Hamson's costume design doesn't need to stretch itself but his work is so articulate and iconic. Sue Ellen Berger designs lighting schemes that rarely receive the credit they deserve -- because they seem so natural. And Richard Long's three-piece combo keeps the music, schmaltz and all, perking along.
"I Do! I Do!" really is something old, something new. And it's certainly more authentic than "Date Night."
[email protected] • 612-673-7299
[return to I Do! I Do! press page]
October 12, 2010
With a flair for big performances, Keith Rice and Norah Long freshen the chestnut "I Do! I Do!" - at least until the script slows them down.
The "New" Chanhassen Dinner Theatres has charted a course toward more contemporary seas, riding a wave of newer and more buoyant material on the main stage of the suburban playhouse. Meanwhile, in the smaller Fireside Theatre, artistic director Michael Brindisi has asked Keith Rice and Norah Long to revive a musical that was a legend of the "old" Chanhassen. "I Do! I Do!" opened last weekend and it is a curious mix of old and new.
Lest I repeat myself for the umpteenth time, "I Do! I Do!" ran for 22 years beginning in 1971 with David Anders and Susan Goeppinger (both of whom were in the audience Friday night). The show bobbed along well enough and then the two actors got married in real life and propelled the event into a novelty as much as a piece of theater.
This side of picking the Yankees to sweep the Twins in next year's playoffs, you cannot make a safer bet than to wager that Rice and Long will not repeat this phenomenon. Whatever success they enjoy will result from their sweat and toil onstage.
"I Do! I Do!" might be considered the Ur text of today's surfeit of "Midlife, Married, Crisis, I hate my husband, I love my wife, I hate myself" musicals, plays and movies. Writer Tom Jones and composer Harvey Schmidt used Jan de Hartog's play "The Fourposter" to cover 50 years of marriage between Michael and Agnes, beginning shortly after 1900. As such, it has some dusty attitudes and ridiculous conceits. But it also has moments of universal truth and sophistication in its journey from fresh love to old age -- with the humdrum of daily life and the agony of infidelity along the way.
Brindisi, Rice and Long largely succeed with their approach to this hoary stuff. The first act flies along, Rice and Long displaying their flair as performers who dare to have irreverent fun with the material -- almost as if they were sketch players. Chemistry crackles, songs soar on their lovely voices (even if Long is a bit refined for the belting "Flaming Agnes") and their comic instincts slice like razors.
The second act, though, feels weary with its maudlin recitation of real life. The actors have little to do but sit on the big bed that defines Nayna Ramey's set design and yammer on about loving each other and needing each other. Brindisi's pace seems trapped -- that is, he can't spoof this serious stuff, and yet he has to do something to pump air back into the room. A sharp knife aimed at Jones' script would be a good start. Circulating the actors with some motion (and I don't care what the stage directions say) would help.
Chanhassen's technical team is typically strong. Rich Hamson's costume design doesn't need to stretch itself but his work is so articulate and iconic. Sue Ellen Berger designs lighting schemes that rarely receive the credit they deserve -- because they seem so natural. And Richard Long's three-piece combo keeps the music, schmaltz and all, perking along.
"I Do! I Do!" really is something old, something new. And it's certainly more authentic than "Date Night."
[email protected] • 612-673-7299
[return to I Do! I Do! press page]