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| Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings |
The Theatre @ Boston Court never shies from a challenge. In the case of the
current Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, the challenge was—to present a
big theater scale major new musical drama based on a classic tale
incorporating electronica and trance music and operatic singing, and
featuring martial arts, Japanese anime, and a cast of nearly 20.
As a longtime fan of TT@BC, I am happy to report that for the most part they
have succeeded, especially for those in the audience raised on graphic novels,
Kung Fu movies, anime, video games, mortal combat fantasies, and epic
legends like The Lord of the Rings. I am not a member of this target audience,
so Paradise Lost was a bit of a hard sell for me. Truth be told, until the last half
hour or so, the story was not particularly interesting or involving…to a fantasy
grouch like me. But don’t let that hold you back from seeing this amazing
piece of theater.
Yes, Paradise Lost is a most impressive achievement, beginning with Eric
Whitacre’s score, which combines techno and trance dance club beats with
soaring operatic voices and pulsating taiko drums, performed live by the On
Ensemble and accompanied by DJ Greg Chun’s mixes. All of this is transmitted
though TT@BC’s state of the art sound system, which rivals that of any West
Hollywood club.
Genius director Michael Michetti has assembled a cast of 19 very athletic
young performers. They’d have to be, in order to execute fight choreographer
Caleb Terray’s many (one-on-one and group) combats. I can pretty much
guarantee you’ve never seen this much onstage fighting in a musical. But
these are multiple-threat young actors, who can not only fight like devils but
sing like angels.
Dan Callaway is Logos, the leader of a band of 20somethings who were
abandoned 17 years before by their parents and are still awaiting their return.
Callaway is a real find, tall, handsome, and a fine singer. (Kevin Earley can’t
play all the leads, can he?) Kevin Odekirk, so good in the Rubicon’s Songs for a
New World, has an angelic tenor interestingly at odds with his character, Ignis,
evil temperament. Daniel Tatar (The Last Five Years), an actor who can sing
and a singer who can act, gets a chance to show off his martial arts skills as
well as to sing the haunting All Alone. And opera singer Rodolfo Nieto is
touching in the gentle (and not too smart) giant role of Gravitas. Juli Robbins
and Marie M. Wallace have less to do in the female sidekick roles, but they are
both very good.
Finally, there is the triumphant performance of Hila Plitmann, an operatic
soprano of great range and sensitivity (wow, does her voice soar!) who is also a
black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Her work as Logos’ sister Extasis is by far the most
powerful in a powerhouse cast. Plitmann has a couple scenes in the second
act which are truly gut wrenching. My eyes, which had been dry up until then
(unusual for me but as I've said, fantasy just doesn't do it for me), did finally tear
up, thanks to the richness and poignancy of Pittman’s performance.
Paradise Lost is selling out, with audience’s coming from across the land and
across oceans to see it. Though some, like myself, may find the fantasy plotline
less than involving, I can pretty much guarantee all of them an overwhelming
experience of light, sound, voice, action, and much beauty.
Runs through September 2, 2007 at the Theatre @ Boston Court, 70 N. Mentor
Av., Pasadena; for tickets, call 626.683.6883.
--Steven Stanley
current Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, the challenge was—to present a
big theater scale major new musical drama based on a classic tale
incorporating electronica and trance music and operatic singing, and
featuring martial arts, Japanese anime, and a cast of nearly 20.
As a longtime fan of TT@BC, I am happy to report that for the most part they
have succeeded, especially for those in the audience raised on graphic novels,
Kung Fu movies, anime, video games, mortal combat fantasies, and epic
legends like The Lord of the Rings. I am not a member of this target audience,
so Paradise Lost was a bit of a hard sell for me. Truth be told, until the last half
hour or so, the story was not particularly interesting or involving…to a fantasy
grouch like me. But don’t let that hold you back from seeing this amazing
piece of theater.
Yes, Paradise Lost is a most impressive achievement, beginning with Eric
Whitacre’s score, which combines techno and trance dance club beats with
soaring operatic voices and pulsating taiko drums, performed live by the On
Ensemble and accompanied by DJ Greg Chun’s mixes. All of this is transmitted
though TT@BC’s state of the art sound system, which rivals that of any West
Hollywood club.
Genius director Michael Michetti has assembled a cast of 19 very athletic
young performers. They’d have to be, in order to execute fight choreographer
Caleb Terray’s many (one-on-one and group) combats. I can pretty much
guarantee you’ve never seen this much onstage fighting in a musical. But
these are multiple-threat young actors, who can not only fight like devils but
sing like angels.
Dan Callaway is Logos, the leader of a band of 20somethings who were
abandoned 17 years before by their parents and are still awaiting their return.
Callaway is a real find, tall, handsome, and a fine singer. (Kevin Earley can’t
play all the leads, can he?) Kevin Odekirk, so good in the Rubicon’s Songs for a
New World, has an angelic tenor interestingly at odds with his character, Ignis,
evil temperament. Daniel Tatar (The Last Five Years), an actor who can sing
and a singer who can act, gets a chance to show off his martial arts skills as
well as to sing the haunting All Alone. And opera singer Rodolfo Nieto is
touching in the gentle (and not too smart) giant role of Gravitas. Juli Robbins
and Marie M. Wallace have less to do in the female sidekick roles, but they are
both very good.
Finally, there is the triumphant performance of Hila Plitmann, an operatic
soprano of great range and sensitivity (wow, does her voice soar!) who is also a
black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Her work as Logos’ sister Extasis is by far the most
powerful in a powerhouse cast. Plitmann has a couple scenes in the second
act which are truly gut wrenching. My eyes, which had been dry up until then
(unusual for me but as I've said, fantasy just doesn't do it for me), did finally tear
up, thanks to the richness and poignancy of Pittman’s performance.
Paradise Lost is selling out, with audience’s coming from across the land and
across oceans to see it. Though some, like myself, may find the fantasy plotline
less than involving, I can pretty much guarantee all of them an overwhelming
experience of light, sound, voice, action, and much beauty.
Runs through September 2, 2007 at the Theatre @ Boston Court, 70 N. Mentor
Av., Pasadena; for tickets, call 626.683.6883.
--Steven Stanley