BWW Reviews: MAID TO MARRY Presents Chic, Romantic Opera at Third Avenue Playhouse

Be musically shaken as well as stirred by these two inventive trios appearing at Sturgeon Bay's Third Avenue Playhouse. One trio, Robert Boles, James Valcq and Ryan Patrick Shaw conjure contemporary mayhem from an 18th century Italian opera in Stage Door Theatre Company's enchanting Maid To Marry. The evening's play on words captures the essence of merry on the way to marry. .

An gifted Valcq adapted, directed and designed the current production based on Giovanni Batista Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona, or loosely translated, The Maid Mistress. Envisioning the 1783 opera with a second trio for the intimate Stage Door Theatre, Valcq now sets the scene in the mid 19th century modern apartment of Hubert, the handsome, well to do bachelor acted by the man with ripped abs, Luke MacMillan. Hubert employs a butler, Curly, and one sassy and svelte maid Serena, played to perfection by Kaleigh Rae Gamaché.

While Curly, the dutiful and comic Craig McClelland, willingly tries to please his employer, Serena attempts to be the boss in Hubert's apartment, which creates the ensuing conflict. To escape Serena's commanding presence and the pressure to obey her, Hubert decides to find an actual wife. And so the dilemma sets in motion an operatic commentary on courtship and love tuned into circa 1950's culture without any dialogue except for the delightful music Valcq interpreted in modern language--Little gems such as "no caffeine makes many men a monster," "no mood for percolation,' or "you're hunky and I'm pretty spunky." The boss collides with the saucy servant during this madcap cat and mouse domesticity to decide who really rules Hubert's apartment and life.

The entire performance Valcq accompanies the singer on a keyboard designed to sound similar to a harpsichord, an intsrument representing the opera's original musical time frame. He plays behinid the scenes while MacMillan and Gamaché complement each other on stage. their faces and gestures equally expressive as their voices, which adds sparking chemistry to a very intimate story. Even Curly's pantomimes in the performance seem to resemble the silent humor of the Marx Borther, Harpo, or perhaps his namesake of Three Stooges fame, and everyone has their place in this comedic opera.

Stage Door inventively taps up and coming young talent, performers recently graduated from theater and music programs across the country for their productions. A savvy way to enrich Door County and offer an opportunity for beginning actors/musicians/playwrights to gain valuable experience on their road to fame or at least a moderate amount of fortune.

MacMillan and Gamaché, who recently appeared at Milwaukee's Skylight Music Theatre, will be future stars to watch in the the increasingly difficult career of musical theater and opera. At Stage Door, the pair creates stellar performances and in the final scenes where Serena's heart ding a lings, the bells, and Hubert's drums thump, thump with the sound of love, Valcq directs this sophisticated yet playful sexual innuendo inferring the romantic tension. In the finale, this wonderful couple excels singing is this "passion, pity or love" and how Hubert will endure the "heavenly headaches for life" Serena incites. Perhaps the cagey humor reminds people to appreciate what they have, whether a person or situation, before either vanish in their life.

Be beguiled by Stage Door's chic and clever take on a Cinderella story, a funny, romantic romp in the theater à la "I Love Lucy." Maid To Marry introduces or encourages a love of opera while the entertaining and stylish evening revels in the comedy of courtship and inspires theatergoers to rush to the nearest restaurant for a fancy cosmopolitan or martini afterwards. An urge impossible to resist because the audience's musical hearts will be as said before, shaken and a little stirred. Enjoy both more than once.

Stage Door Theatre Company presents James Valcq's adaptation of La Serva Padrona in Maid to Marry at Sturgeon Bay's Third Avenue Playhouse in Door County through May 31. For the summer performance schedule, information on the upcoming August fundraiser, or tickets, please call 920.743.1760 or www.thirdavenueplayhouse.com.

To post a comment, you must register and login.