From: davidf@HQ.Ileaf.COM (David Fristrom)
Subject: MARTIN GUERRE
Reply-To: davidf@HQ.Ileaf.COM (David Fristrom)
Organization: Interleaf, Inc.
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 21:59:59 GMT

Yesterday I saw the new musical MARTIN GUERRE at HartfordStage.  Given
HartfordStage's track record in sending things on to Broadway, I'm
sure that it is at least being considered for a New York move (I seem
to remember it being on Theater Week's list of "possible" shows for
this season), but in my opinion they shouldn't bother.

The musical is based on them same incident that was the basis of the
French movie THE RETURN OF MARTIN GUERRE: after a seven-year absence,
a man returns to his wife in a small village in 16th century France.
While he is initially welcomed, doubts are later raised about his
identity, and a trial is held to determine if he is indeed Martin
Guerre.  Where the movie concentrated on the return, the musical
devotes its first act to the events before the return.  Martin and his
wife Mireille de Rols were wed while quite young in an arranged
marriage intended to combine the properties of the two families;
Mireille is reluctant buts wants to be a good wife; Martin wants
nothing to do with it, and appears to be impotent.  His uncle, a
bastard who can't inherit the family land and is the villain of the
musical, taunts him and he runs away from the village, leaving
Mireille (who has something of a Scarlet O'Hara attachment to the
land) to run the farm alone.

In the second act Martin returns (or does he?).  Mireille is initially
skeptical, but then falls in love with her husband, who has become a
new man, more mature and loving.  Then the evil uncle, scheming to lay
his hands on the property, brings the charge that Martin is an
imposter.

The cast is quite strong.  Mireille, who is really the main character
in the musical, is played by Judy Kuhn.  Malcom Gets plays Martin in
the first act, while Patrick Cassidy plays him in the second act.  Not
very funny comic relief is provided by Beth Fowler and Cris
Groenendaal, playing Martin's nurse and a priest; both could have
stepped right out of a production of ROMEO AND JULIET.

The staging, by Mark Lamos, and the set, by Michael Yeargan, are quite
striking; Liza Gennaro's choreography is pretty conventional.  Where
the whole thing falls apart is in the book & lyrics by Laura
Harrington and the music by Roger Ames.  Both list a number of
previous works in their credits, but nothing major (i.e. nothing I'd
heard of before).  While not through-sung, it's definitely in the mold
of recent musicals like Les Miz and Miss Saigon.  On first hearing,
the music doesn't have much character, and the lyrics are
uninteresting.  There's a lot of mixing of singing and spoken dialog,
with short snippets set to music.  I was getting frustrated waiting
for a real song when we finally got one, and then it wasn't worth the
wait.  It's always possible the songs would grow on me after
additional hearings, but I doubt it.

When the characters speak rather than sing, things aren't much better;
the dialog is stilted and unconvincing, and the structure of the story
isn't well done.  For example, when the possibly fake Martin appears
in the second act, we learn that Mireille falls in love with him, but
we never learn whether she ever doubts his identity, which means her
statements on the subject at the trial lack an emotional basis.  These
kinds of inner thoughts are what I'd expect to come out in a song.

The orchestra is small, six people with two synthesizers hidden
completely out of sight.  The sound is basically good, except for an
odd problem with Cris Groenendaal.  No one else is miked (or if they
are miked, it is done very subtlely) except Cris, and he's miked
abysmally, with the sound coming from a different direction with
distortion.  Fortunately, it's a fairly small part, but it made me
wince every time he spoke or sang.

I might mention that not everyone shares my disappointment with the
show; more than half the audience gave it a standing ovation at the
end.

David Fristrom		| "Somewhere up in heaven
Interleaf, Inc.		|  There's an angel with big ears."
davidf@ileaf.com	|