Byzantium: Ambitious, But Not Quite Ready

Byzantium is one of those musicals that makes me immediately check the authors' program bios during intermission. As I suspected, there isn't a lot of experience in writing for musical theatre here, and since I don't like discouraging young composers, lyricists and (especially) bookwriters, I'm going to make the assumption that a lot of the show's problems stem from the fact that they've simply yet to master the craft. Byzantium is certainly an ambitious attempt at an epic musical, but too much of the resulting production makes it seem like the desired results are beyond the current capabilities of those involved.

 

Overloaded with ballads, stilted dialogue and questionable judgment in regards to song placement, it doesn't become reasonably clear just who and what the show is about until Act I is nearly completed. A brief approximation is that somewhere in the middle of the 6th Century A.D., the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I is presented with the gift of a young princess for the purpose of a political marriage. He accepts the gift but, as he's already in love with an actress who performs sexy dances at the local circus, he passes her along as a bride for one of his generals. And it turns out that the monk who delivered the princess is a whiz with mosaic tiles, so he's appointed to design the great temple Hagia Sophia. The Emperor tries changing the law that forbids him from marrying a commoner and the jilted bride tries to spearhead an overthrow of the government while becoming romantically involved with the monk.

There's the obvious intention to parallel these ancient events (based on actual facts) with modern day political issues, but aside from occasionally dropping references to such matters as homeland security and post war exit strategies, John Kaiser's book is too unfocused to make any social commentary clear. Similarly, Beverly Cruickshank's costumes awkwardly combine modern and ancient dress, and director Cailin Heffernan never finds a consistent acting style for the cast.

Steven Jamail's music is in the style of bland dramatic pop. The combination of an over-amplified keyboard and an epidemic of muddy diction and unbalanced choral singing makes comprehending full sentences from Troy Scheid's lyrics nearly impossible.

The only exceptions to the diction woes are the two leading players, who both managed to come up with respectable performances. Bram Heidinger, as the monk, has a fine light tenor and acts with humble sincerity. Danielle Huben, as the princess, must play her character as a shy young girl in her first scene, a sarcastic wise-cracker in her next, then flip over to serious political manipulation and romantic drama before being stabbed with a knife and having to stretch her death through three scenes. All without proper support from the script.

The entire cast, it should be noted. performs with enthusiasm and flashes of their talent manage to peek out on occasion. But at this point Byzantium needs far more work before anyone is going to look good performing in it.

Photo by Troy Scheid: Danielle Huben and Bram Heidinger