Carmen Jones
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Cititour.com Review
As Joni Mitchell once wrote, “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.” And from the moment Anika Noni Rose takes the stage as the title character of the 1943 musical “Carmen Jones,” now being revived at Classic Stage Company, you will instantly recall how transcendent a performer this Tony Award winner can be -- and how much we’ve been deprived of her incandescent stage presence for nearly four years.
As the slinky, man-eating seductress in this modernized adaptation of George Bizet’s and Prosper Merimee’s beloved opera – here set in World War II Chicago and featuring the colloquial lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II – Rose almost literally sets the stage aflame, offering both bravado acting and bravura singing. Rose’s rendition of her first number – and the show’s most famous tune -- “Dat’s Love (Habanera)” sizzles then explodes, and she continues to mesmerize us (as well as every man onstage) right up until her tragic end.
Whether Mitchell’s now-iconic lyric is equally applicable to the show itself, which hasn’t had a major New York City production in over 70 years, is a bit harder to judge. Director John Doyle has cut large sections of the work (it now runs a streamlined 95 minutes) and his typical uber-minimalist approach doesn’t do the piece full justice: the doubling of many of the 10 cast members combined with Scott Pask’s barely-there sets often leave us a bit confused about who’s who and where’s where. (Not that I am expecting the original Broadway production, which featured a cast of approximately 100 people!)
Musically, the piece’s main attraction remains Bizet’s glorious score (even when, as here, it’s played by only six musicians), while Hammerstein’s lyrics are mostly pleasant but rarely inspired. And the story is familiar, perhaps too familiar, to anyone who has ever seen the opera, slightly lessening the musical’s possible impact. Moreover, it seems a shame that Doyle didn’t utilize more of the singular choreographic talents of the legendary Bill T. Jones, since the few minutes of dancing and movement he provided is just glorious!
Fortunately, even when there isn’t much to look at in “Carmen Jones,” there’s plenty to hear as the show is beautifully sung and acted. The strapping Clifton Duncan makes for a sympathetic Joe, the nice guy who loses his moral compass under Carmen’s spell; the luminous Lindsay Roberts is sweetness personified as Joe’s childhood friend (and quasi-sweetheart) Cindy Lou; David Aron Damane is remarkably impressive, physically and vocally, as the aptly named Husky Miller, the arrogant boxer who lures Carmen away from Joe; and Soara-Joye Ross is glorious as factory worker Frankie, who leads the ecstatic “Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum.”
Still, as good as they all are, if you don’t leave the theater jonesing to have Rose do another musical as soon as possible (or maybe continue somehow in this one), you need to have your head and heart reexamined.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
https://www.classicstage.org/shows/2018/06/carmen-jones
Cast
Anika Noni Rose, David Aron Damane, Erica Dorfler, Clifton Duncan, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Justin Keyes, Lindsay Roberts, Soara-Joye Ross, Lawrence E. Street, Tramell Tillman
Open/Close Dates
Opening 6/9/2018
Closing 8/19/2018
Box Office
866-811-4111
Theatre Info
CSC
136 East 13th Street
New York, NY 10003
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