Review: Cecsarini and Tramantano Master the Legend in Next Act's BRAVO, CARUSO!

In a backstage dressing room of New York's Metropolitan Opera, Enrico Caruso appears as David Cecsarini, Artistic Director of Next Act Theater. The company's perfectly paired production also features Christopher Tramantana as Caruso's faithful valet, Mario. In playwright William Luce's Bravo, Caruso!. the audiences recalls that even gifted performers face trials and tribulations. During this production, Caruso prepares for what will eventually be his final performance, this time as the Rabbi Eléazar in the Met's La Juive on Christmas Eve, 1920, far away from where Caruso's heart desires to be, in Naples, Italy, his homeland that he loves.

Caruso and Mario, or on stage, Cecsarini and Tramantana, appear to talk to several reporters in a preshow interview, in which the audience participates and plays their role. As the audience watches the two men, road partners for 18 plus years while Caruso travels the world for his music, what unfolds becomes a heartfelt tribute to friendship, opera, and the passion of performance-for Caruso and Next Act.

Staged on Rick Rasmussen's beautifully detailed set and dressed in period costumes by Dana Brzezinski, Cecsarini and Tranmantana come together as this artful odd couple, completing each other's sentences or correcting the facts of memories with a camaraderie that lights up the stage, in perfect sync with each other. Mario even irons a a white rabbinic shawl multiple times to please Caruso, which Tramantana does with subtle comic aplomb, both under the astute direction of Edward Morgan, who pulls from these two actors expressions of genuine affection and humor.

Cecsarini masters Caruso in this dynamic performance, engaging and entertaining, which requires the actor on stage almost every minute. As Caruso retells his life story from early childhood in bits and pieces-- how his mother Anna inspired his music, or of the Marchesa who sings off key--Cecsarini inspires the audience. Watching Cecsarini, Caruso, transform into the Jewish Rabbi while he sits at his make-up table and applies the face and wig on stage recreates theater wonder. Yet, the character reminds the audience even opera celebrities and geniuses have lives filled with adversity, and face mortality that can be softened by true friendship-- A warm and poignant friendship these two actors capture perfectly on stage for the audience.

Next Act reprises the Luce play from their 2003 season to replace a new play that needed additional workshops before becoming a full scale production. Renaissance Theaterworks recently produced another of Luce's play on poet Emily Dickinson titled The Belle of Amherst, one of Luce's best known works. In this fabulous and wise decision to change a schedule on short notice Bravo, Caruso! here fills the stage with humor and warmth within the great tradition of opera. While the city enters the holiday season, how wonderful to be reminded that friendship triumphs any sorrows, and similar to art, can make life worthwhile. in this play the long term lives of two men intertwine seamlessly in personal joys and sorrows. When Cecsarini as Caruso exits in his complete costume for this opera, at the finale, fully prepared to perform while his health quickly deteriorates, the passion of art, friendship and theater come alive so these priceless gifts can be celebrated by the audience all season.

Next Act presents William Luce's Bravo, Caruso! at 255 South Water Street, Milwaukee, through December 6. For performance schedule or tickets, please call 414.278.0765 or www.nextact.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.