Revamped 'Tarzan' Still a Jungle of Contradictions

Based on the story of "Tarzan and the Apes" by Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Disney film 'Tarzan;" music and lyrics by Phil Collins; book by David Henry Hwang; directed by Bill Castellino; choreography by Joshua Bergasse; scenic design by Timothy R. Mackabee; costume design by Charles Schoonmaker; lighting design by David Neville; sound design by James McCartney and Josh Staines; wig and hair design Gerard Kelly; makeup design by Michael A. King; projection design by Shawn Duan; music supervisor, Keith Levenson; musical direction by Anne Shuttlesworth; flying effects provided by ZFX, Inc.; ape costume construction by Carmel Dundon; additional costume construction by Susan Slack

Cast in order of appearance:

Mother, Andrea Goss; Father, Eric Collins; Kerchak, Todd Alan Johnson; Kala, Robyn Payne; Young Tarzan, Giacomo Favazza; Terk, Christopher Messina; Leopard, Gregory Haney; Tarzan, Brian Justin Crum; Jane Porter, Andrea Goss; Professor Porter, Jay Russell; Mr. Clayton, Eric Collins; Snipes, Matthew Bauman

Performances: Now through July 24; North Shore Music Theatre, 62 Dunham Road, Beverly, MA; tickets priced from $35-$65, children 12 and under 50% off all evening performances. Box Office at 978-232-7200 or online at www.nsmt.org.

North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Mass., tries very hard to bring Disney's "Tarzan," the failed Broadway musical newly revised by librettist David Henry Hwang, back to life. Unfortunately, even this scaled-down, more intimate version, featuring two excellent performances at its center by Brian Justin Crum as Tarzan and Andrea Goss as Jane, withers and dies on the vine.

It's not for lack of talent or ingenuity that "Tarzan" disappoints. Director Bill Castellino and choreographer Joshua Bergasse have turned the North Shore stage and theater-in-the-round into a vibrant jungle gym in which cast members effortlessly vault, climb, swing and even sing upside down. The show is quite visually impressive, and for the most part actors give it their acrobatic all.

The problem is the absolutely dreadful material. Hwang, a Tony Award-winning playwright and Pulitzer Prize finalist for his poignant and sensitive drama "M. Butterfly," and a 2003 Tony Award nominee for his revised book of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Flower Drum Song," should know better. He is capable of crafting delicate explorations of the clash of classes and cultures. We see glimpses of that sensibility here, especially in scenes where Jane gently leads Tarzan to discover his human condition, helping him understand why he has always felt different from the ape family that raised him without ever really knowing why. But too often - and too painfully - Hwang resorts to juvenile pop lingo and anachronistic puns that derail any opportunity for authenticity or sustained emotional investment.

The pop-schlock score by '80s pseudo-rocker Phil Collins is even worse. Crum and Goss do the best they can to bring deeper meaning to the impossibly generic lyrics of "Different," "Strangers Like Me," and "For the First Time," and Christopher Messina as Tarzan's best friend forever Terk has lots of fun with his buddy anthem, "Who Better Than Me?" But nothing that Robyn Payne and Todd Alan Johnson as Tarzan's adoptive ape parents Kala and Kerchak do can save them from Collins' mediocrity.

Payne's "You'll Be in My Heart," which inexplicably won the Oscar for Best Song from Disney's movie version of "Tarzan," sounds more like the B-side of a groovin' to the oldies 45 than a mother's heart-breaking lament at the violent death of one beloved infant and the acceptance of another from a strange and dangerous human world. Johnson's "No Other Way," in which Kerchak struggles with his decision to abandon Young Tarzan (Giacomo Favazza) in a remote region of the jungle, explores none of the inner turmoil that this majestic creature experiences when choosing to sacrifice one misfit child for the good of the others in his family. Instead he is painted as a heartless villain, negating the very notion at the center of the story that apes are perhaps more humane than humans.

Whenever "Tarzan" focuses on the deeper issue of what it means to be truly social beings, its potential as a successful musical is evident. However, too often substance is buried beneath steaming piles of cheap shtick, and characters become no more than the cartoons from which they were adapted. Professor Porter (Jay Russell), Jane's anthropologist father, is a foppish stiff-upper-lip Brit, and Mr. Clayton (Eric Collins) needs only the handlebar mustache to be the quintessential cartoon scoundrel. At least Russell has the opportunity to demonstrate a few moments of sincere fatherly affection during a touching scene or two with Goss in the second act. He brings a nice depth and warmth to his character that is unexpected. He grounds Act II and offers hope for mankind's evolution.

The apes, unfortunately, suffer the greatest ignominy in "Tarzan," which is both tragic and ironic. "Trashin' the Camp" is a demeaning musical non sequitur that has a band of marauding youths turning the destruction of the Porter tent and its contents into a Stomp-like percussive interlude. Is the ensemble talented and energetic? Sure. But Jane Goodall it isn't.

A bit of Goodall's powers of observation would have helped the actors playing apes "ape" their movements a bit more convincingly, as well. Awkward knuckle-dragging and self-conscious ambulating, especially by Payne and Johnson as Kala and Kerchak, rob them of their authority as parents, protectors and formidable jungle leaders. However, some of their lack of commitment to believable ape-like behavior may stem from an indecisive framework from which their performances spring. Whenever they are onstage separate from human beings they are placed in a curious schizoid limbo, punctuating fluid English with grunts and groans and alternating between walking upright and crawling around on all fours. Once the humans enter the picture, their simian transformations become complete and convincing, making Tarzan's plight of being caught between two worlds all the more evident and palpable. One can only wonder how dramatic the contrast in perspective could have been if the apes were allowed to act as humans right up until the moment Jane first discovers and observes them.

Costumes by Charles Schoonmaker, Carmel Dundon and Susan Slack are a strange amalgam, too, also suggesting half-animal half-human nature. The effect is confusing at best (are those winged creatures spinning that huge web birds, butterflies, or spiders?) and intrusive at worst (why are the apes wearing shiny fabric vests, leotard chaps and Rastafarian dreadlocked caps?).

Some might suggest that "Tarzan" is just a kid's show, so just go with the flow and enjoy it. But this Disney vehicle falls far short of its superior Broadway predecessors: "Beauty and the Beast," "The Lion King," and "Mary Poppins." Even "family shows" should live up to a certain quality standard. Despite a herculean effort by North Shore Music Theatre and an exceedingly nimble cast, this "new and improved" version of "Tarzan" doesn't even come close.

PHOTOS BY PAUL LYDEN: Christopher Messina as Terk; Robyn Payne as Kala; Andrea Goss as Jane Porter and Brian Justin Crum as Tarzan; Giacomo Favazza as Young Tarzan and Todd Alan Johnson as Kerchak

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