BWW Reviews: PRiMA Theatre Premieres Elton John's AIDA In Lancaster

Ah, but a man's reach must exceed his grasp - or what's a heaven for? So spoke Robert Browning, writing about a painter, but he might just as easily be writing about PRiMA Theatre in Lancaster. PRiMA's vision statements sound great - the "cure for the common cultural experience," "fresh theatrics" - but they're vague, airy, and don't aim at a particular artistic vision. Often they result in staged concerts and in revues, which are all well and good - but are they fresh and visionary? "We're gonna do our best to deliver great theatre in our area" is a little less lofty-sounding, but often results in more return, because it has more concrete meaning. So when PRiMA announced a fully staged AIDA - the Elton John/Tim Rice musical, not the opera - it was a chance for PRiMA to deliver concretely on some of its unspecified goals.

PRiMA has reached for, but it hasn't quite grasped, the brass ring on the pyramid door. Admittedly, the John/Rice AIDA, with book by Linda Woolverton, David Hwang, and Robert Falls, is quite a spectacle, and it has some magnificent music - though some, like this writer, will prefer the originAl Verdi opera, always. With much more accessible knowledge about Egypt than Verdi had, the musical makes more egregious errors (the Pharaoh's only child, if female, was not, under normal circumstances, going to take the Serpent Crown - if you're going to be a Disney musical, please feed the kids some real facts), but nobody really pays attention to the book anyway; they're there for the incredible show. And most people avoid opera, so they'll never know that the John/Rice musical isn't faithful to the actual story - RENT is closer to LA BOHEME in many respects than AIDA is to... well, AIDA.

Director Dan Deal is without doubt sharp, incisive, and visionary. His reach here is incredible, but the grasp - the full execution - is not complete. He was influenced by the original opera to feel the need for the "cast of thousands" effect, which was provided by the Lancaster Bible College chorus. It's a great idea, but the staging on the Ware Center's small Steinman Hall stage forces the college singers into assuming stationary choral perches behind the main action, all draped in white robes of various sorts, looking vaguely like a pseudo-Egyptian version of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir grouped around a pyramid rather than the Tabernacle organ. Further, their need to exit and enter from both sides of a small stage and a small backstage area made their entrances and exits seem as long as the Hebrew slaves' journey out of Egypt into the Sinai wilderness, on repeated occasions. A larger stage and a larger backstage area would have made it possible to place the chorus more naturally around the stage, as with full opera rather than oratorio.

While that effect fails to achieve in reality what it holds in vision, costuming of main characters is far more effective. The Princess Amneris, who believes that being a fashion plate helps remind the people of her goddess-like stature (shades of EVITA), has a massive number of changes from one magical costume to another, sometimes on stage, all effective and quite dazzling. Andrea McCormick is a fine singer, holding audience attention as the Daughter of Isis rather more effectively than Amneris holds her fiancé Radames' attention. Courtier Zoser, father of Radames, is magnificent in his robes, as well as in his singing - Chris Bergamo brings some serious lung power to the part, as well as a sufficiently sinister presence that's clear to the audience though utterly invisible both to the Pharaoh and to his own son.

Latasha Whitmore is a lovely Aida, both in form and in voice. Although she hasn't performed in the area in a number of years, the HAIRSPRAY tour belter certainly has lost nothing in her voice, either in singing or in spoken vocal delivery. She's one of those performers who can deliver emotion in the raising of an arm or in the turning of her head, in one moment, when other actors require an entire scene to do the same.

It may be a serious drawback that the show is only being performed on two Sundays, with matinee and evening performances and only two hours between shows. Jay Poff, as Radames, the central male character, military commander and both capturer and lover of Aida -- he's been engaged to Amneris for nine years, but he's apparently immediately charmed by Aida's native outspokenness and defiance, in comparison to Amneris - doesn't come off, at least in the later show, quite as well as Whitmore. There was a tempering of the swashbuckling spirit at first, as well as of voice, that was not quite shaken until near the end of the first act in the evening performance.

Mereb, Radames' Nubian slave, is played by Michael Fisher, who's worked regularly with Sight And Sound Theatre, and it's a pleasure to see him on the PRiMA stage as well. His first-act duet with Aida, "How I Know You," is one of the highlights of the show, as is McCormick's performance of Amneris' song, "My Strongest Suit". McCormick's voice makes her a fine choice for Amneris, as well, in her delivery of Amneris' magnificent eleven o'clock number, "I Know The Truth".

There are some truly fine things about this production - several of the cast singers, especially Whitmore and McCormick; McCormick's costumes; Michael Fisher's entire performance. Other matters - the crowding of the stage with the chorus, the execution of the choreography in some cases, the apparently canned music (pre-recorded accompaniment for singers is an abomination unto the Lord) - are not so fine. Nor is the effect that's achieved on the set by what looks like an effort to wrap the steps around the pyramid with fitted sheets. Those are hardly the only issues, but they're some of the most obvious. The lack of energy in the evening performance may be exhaustion from the matinee performance for the cast; Deal's casts are usually almost hyper-energetic, as with his extremely well-received BACK TO THE 80'S show for PRiMA.

PRiMA markets itself as being a superior professional theatre experience. Unfortunately, it doesn't always live up to its own hype. This is one of those cases. On the other hand, it's the premiere of AIDA in the area (Millersville University will also be performing it this season, incidentally) and that in itself deserves praise. It's time that someone staged it here, and it's equally surprising that Marc Robin hasn't taken it on here yet at the Fulton; it begs for the same sort of imaginative staging and choreography, and no doubt budget, that he brought to last season's JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT there. We might also look forward to Deal being given a full complement of time and resources for his next full stage show so that he can direct for PRiMA the way his fans and his casts know he can direct, and properly produce the effects he's envisioning.

The ticket prices are steep in some of the seating for the production as a whole, but if you can, it's worth it to hear Whitmore and Fisher's duet, and to hear Whitmore's and McCormick's singing in Steinman Hall's acoustics. PRiMA shows AIDA again on September 15 at 2:00 and at 7:00 at Steinman Hall in the Ware Center, Lancaster. Call 717-327-5124 or visit primatheatre.com for tickets.

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