Ahna O’Reilly and Steven Pasquale in The Robber Bridegroom at the Laura Pels Theatre, New York. Picture: Joan Marcus
The Robber Bridegroom continues at the Laura Pels Theatre, New York until 29 May.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Director Alex Timbers and a cast of top-notch gleeful talents put a bright and especially frolicsome shine on The Robber Bridegroom, a half-century-old musical being revived Off-Broadway by the Roundabout Theatre Company, which coincidentally is celebrating its 50th anniversary season.
The work saw a very limited stay on Broadway in 1975 as a presentation of The Acting Company, an organisation put together with members of the first acting class to graduate from the Juilliard School, the prestigious conservatory of the performing arts. The cast included the fledgling stars Kevin Kline and Patti LuPone. It then returned a year later with a different cast and racked up 145 performances.
Based on a novella by Eudora Welty, the show has book and lyrics by Alfred Uhry (of Driving Miss Daisy fame) and lots of bluegrass-style music by Robert Waldman. It spins a light-hearted, folkloric tale of a bandit by the name of Jamie Lockhart. He works the woods along the Natchez Trace running through Mississippi Territory in the late 1700s. As we learn in the opening number, when all the show’s characters are introduced in song and story theatre fashion, he’s a man of two faces; one well bred and good, and the other scary and covered with berry juice.
With his good face on, Jamie rescues a merchant from being robbed by a rival outlaw, Little Harp. Little Harp carries out his deeds with the help of the very much alive severed head of his brother, Big Harp, which he hauls around in a trunk.
Jamie is rewarded by the merchant with an invitation to his home where he can meet the merchant’s comely daughter Rosamund. But before making it there, Jamie, with his bad face on, has a couple of chance meetings with Rosamund in the woods, igniting romantic sparks without knowing she’s the merchant’s daughter. When Jamie makes it to the merchant’s home, Rosamund, not realising who he is, tries to deter any romantic intentions by putting on spectacles and pretending to be a homely nitwit. And likewise, of course, Jamie doesn’t realise the nitwit is his woman of the woods.
The plot takes many twists before it all ends, a lot of them prompted by the machinations of the merchant’s second wife, Salome. As Rosamund’s stepmother, Salome, as stepmothers tend to be, is both vain and wicked.
Timbers, whose staging vision vivified such productions as Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Here Lies Love and the under-appreciated Rocky, makes sure we take none of this seriously. Sound and sight gags abound, sometimes shamelessly, but never tiresomely. It all manages to retain that mysterious essence called charm.
Additionally, the score beams a feel-good ambiance over the entire proceedings. There are foot-stomping hoedowns, lilting twangy waltzes and a hint or two of country rock.
Waldman’s tunes pair seamlessly with Uhry’s adroit lyrics that mix the literate with the colloquial. Five nimble musicians play them with zest, and Connor Gallagher’s choreography translates the sounds into spirited movement. Donyale Werle’s set design, depicting something like a spacious barn-cum-country general store, radiates a cosy communal feel.
The cast wonderfully carries through Timbers’ intentions, keeping things bubbling at every turn. Steven Pasquale imbues Jamie with an ingratiating mixture of boyish glee and daring bravura, heightened by his hefty baritone singing and lightened by just a barely perceptible amount of tongue in cheek.
Ahna O’Reilly’s Rosamund makes an endearing romantic foil, both gutsy and fresh, while Leslie Kritzer takes Salome through a bountiful repertoire of mugging and pratfalls, managing to keep it all hilarious. It’s the kind of work that in the olden days, when such labels were dished out, could crown her the Clown Princess of Off-Broadway.
Andrew Durand and Evan Harrington further add to the merriment, transforming Little and Big Harp into a pair of likeable if weird scumbags. More laughs are provided by Greg Hildreth as the dim-witted fellow named Goat, whom Salome hires to carry out her fatal plans for Rosamund. Lance Roberts as Rosamund’s affable merchant father and Nadia Quinn as a fierce raven of the woods complete the colourful population.
Summing up, here’s a show that has both charm and laughs to spare. Dare I say it? All right, I will. For at least 90 minutes or so, this Robber Bridegroom can steal your troubles away.
Ron Cohen
Readers may also be interested in:
Disaster! – Nederlander Theatre, New York – Review
Southern Comfort – The Public Theater, New York – Review
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