Review: Lifeline's Blossoming NORTHANGER ABBEY is an Early Summer Charmer

It is a truth universally acknowledged (wrong novel, but work with me) that Jane Austen proves irresistible. How could she not? Her wit and words have endured the test of time and zombification, and she's going on England's ten-pound note in a few years. So she was undeniably onto something - a lot of things, namely all the tiny illogicalities of womanhood that so required "happy endings" via marriage, and being dazzlingly humane about it, to boot. And, to be sure, musical theater writers have not been entirely wrong to draw from her well. But there are difficulties in translating Austen's work, mostly in how to bring to life her narrative voice without, well, overuse of narration, or to integrate it into dialogue without sounding stilted. And her plotting usually involves slowly spinning a web between her characters, then making revelations - ancient family histories, illicit relations - that either sever those bonds, strengthen them, or forge new ones.

In short, there is a lot of exposition to contend with. And nothing kills a show like too much exposition.

Lifeline Theatre's new chamber musical - NORTHANGER ABBEY, from Austen's posthumous novel - while certainly belabored by exposition and other first-go-'round musical business, is a surprising and worthy summer charmer.

Any musical that begins like this one - thunder clapping and apparitions chanting demon Latin - is bound to have a few surprises. Fortunately enough, country girl Catherine Morland (Stephanie Stockstill) loves surprises, or at least the ones found in the pages of Gothic thrillers, her dearest treasures, from which she decides to call herself a "heroine in training." The surprises of living in a new place, meeting new people, and stumbling through etiquette, courtship, and love take some getting used to, though, but it's part of the journey she must take on the road to the more real, fulfilling heroism of adulthood.

NORTHANGER's own musical journey steps off strongly simply by virtue of the source material's relative obscurity, compared to, say, the regularly adapted Pride and Prejudice. It was especially interesting, then, to compare NORTHANGER with last year's very fine SENSE and SENSIBILITY at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. In comparing the two, Robert Kauzlaric's book and George Howe's chamber score are much more traditionally structured in the scene-song-reprise model than Paul Gordon's weaving pop-opera leitmotifs. While both styles have their pleasures - and Howe's music is as stately and sweeping as Gordon's - the lyrics in particular here are exact, dexterous, and highly literate.

(I was particularly fond of "Torment," which beguilingly uses a chromatic melody to unsettling effect. Also, "The Symmetry of Flowers," in all its quiet, understated beauty. Also also, some of the finest vocal harmonies I've heard in a long time; choristers will assuredly melt.)

Meanwhile, Kauzlaric's book ably preserves Austen's humor and heart; it feels fidelitous to the novel, which, in the art of adaptation, is optimal.

Alas, NORTHANGER's first act proves that there can be too much of a good thing. It's simply overloaded with songs and situations, and with exposition. Not every new character or development needs a song, regardless of their individual craftsmanship. In turn, the plot only really gets in gear before intermission, when Catherine rides off with Henry Tilney (Javier Ferreira) for the titular abbey, his home. Some condensing or at least balancing out is in order.

(Though in regards to the threat of excessive narration, director Elise Kauzlaric's chief device to relay inner thoughts - an eerie masked chorus affirming or challenging Catherine's insecurities - is successful in intent and execution.)

Such reorganizing would certainly take some burden off of Catherine's shoulders - she's onstage for nearly the whole show and sings just as much - but Stockstill is a game actress with a shockingly good soprano, who takes such apparent joy in the macabre, and who grows from girl to woman before our eyes as she embraces the sweet and indelicate complexities of life. A career to follow, for sure.

As Catherine's nominal guide into proper society, Jenifer Tyler, as the Austenian well-meaning nag Mrs. Allen, doesn't chew the scenery as much as eat it in a most becoming and ladylike manner. As her web of friends and suitors, Lydia Hiller, Chris Ballou, Denzel Tsopnang, and Andres Enriquez are ideal. And as her paramour, Ferreira blossoms just as fulsomely as Stockstill.

There's some ways to go, still, on the bumpy road to musical immortality, but where NORTHANGER ABBEY stands now is still well-worth your time, and its carriage drivers are surely able craftspeople who will let its already profoundly human, profoundly Austenian virtues come into their own.

NORTHANGER ABBEY runs through July 17th at Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave. Regular performance times are Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m; Saturdays at 4 and 8 p.m.; and Sundays at 4 p.m. There will be a performance with touch tour and audio description on June 25th. Ticket prices are $40 for regular single tickets; $30 for seniors and active and retired military personnel (with ID); and $20 for students and rush tickets (available half-hour before show time, subject to availability). Group rate of 12 or more is available upon request. Tickets may be purchased at the Lifeline Theatre Box Office; (773) 761-4477; or by visiting www.lifelinetheatre.com.

Photo credit: Suzanne Plunkett

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