Review: Encores!'s BIG RIVER Matches Mark Twain's Humor With Roger Miller's Melodies

One would assume that Mark Twain would have been amused that his 1884 novel condemning America's history of enslavement of Africans, "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," has occasionally been condemned itself as racist literature for its realistic use of a certain slur.

It's the kind of twisted sense reflected in his plot concerning the young title character who rebels against the devotedly religious women raising him by doing something they would deem as truly unholy; helping Jim, a runaway slave, escape to the north on a raft navigating the Mississippi River. It's an adventure that teaches him that, despite what the good people of St. Petersburg, Missouri, have drummed into his brain, black people really do have the same complex emotions and longings as white people. The lesson is climaxed by his declaration that he intends to defy God and risk going to Hell for the sake of helping his friend reunite with the wife and children he's been separated from through southern commerce.

BIG RIVER, based on Twain's classic, came to Broadway in 1985 as the first musical theatre venture for both the popular honky-tonk songwriter Roger Miller and playwright William Hauptman. While the decade was dominated by musicals imported from the West End, none of them settled in New York during that 1984-85 season and BIG RIVER, amidst a disappointing crop of American-grown musicals, took home Tonys for both its authors, along with the Best Musical prize.

But when compared with more accomplished works, BIG RIVER turns out to be more pleasant than polished. Though Miller wrote a very attractive collection of songs, few of them are specific to the characters and plot. His best lyrics propel two novelty numbers written for secondary characters: Pap Finn's cuss-laden rant on all forms of "guv'ment" and Tom Sawyer's quirky patter celebrating his admiration for hogs.

Huck and Jim share the hand-clappin', foot-stompin' exuberance of "Muddy Waters," the lovely and contemplative "River In The Rain" and the score's most potent racial commentary, "Worlds Apart" ("I see the same skies through brown eyes / That you see through blue / But we're worlds apart."), but their character solos ("Waitin' For The Light To Shine" for Huck and "Free At Last" for Jim) are too generic in tone. The second act hints at a potential romance for Huck, but not enough to justify grinding the plot to a halt with "Leavin's Not The Only Way To Go."

Hauptman's narration-heavy book works its way through incorporating all the musical detours, but it was director Des McAnuff, a master at providing broad and interesting stage pictures, who made BIG RIVER such a success in its original run. So it's appropriate that Lear deBessonet, who has done such exceptional work with broad and interesting stage pictures while directing nearly 200 performers for the Public Works productions at the Delacorte, was selected to helm the Encores! concert revival.

Despite the significantly smaller cast and modest production values, deBessonet and her terrific company smoothly navigate the ever-changing landscape of the musical's episodic journey.

In the leading roles, Nicholas Barasch's scruffy, spunky Huck, who sings with an appealing twang, pairs nicely with Kyle Scatliffe's serious-minded, richly-voiced Jim. Charlie Franklin makes a snappy impression as the flippantly-humored Tom Sawyer and it's a pleasure to see talents like Cass Morgan and Annie Golden in the small roles of Huck's guardians, the domineering Widow Douglas and the sweet Miss Watson.

As a con artist known as The Duke, Christopher Sieber makes a comical mess of Shakespeare, with the funny David Pittu serving as his hapless foil, The King. Lauren Worsham's soulful singing is put to good use as the almost-conned Mary Jane Wilkes, but her featured moment, where the character sings to a dead body in a casket "(If You Think It's Lonesome Where You Are Tonight) Then You Oughta Be Here With Me," has got to be one of the most awkwardly conceived moments for a sincere ballad ever placed in a hit Broadway musical.

Rob Berman leads the on-stage Encores! Orchestra. Only ten pieces are required for Steven Margoshes and Danny Troub's orchestrations, but they bring down the house with the second act's lively entr'acte.

Miller passed on in 1992, with BIG RIVER being his only musical theatre score. With a little more familiarity with how the craft works, he might have found a new career on Broadway. He sure could write a catchy tune and a fun lyric.

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