Review - Passion

Out of necessity, people tend to fall in love rather quickly in musical theatre. Trying to jam a relationship into a two and a half hour entertainment often means a good thirty-two bars of lush music and romantic lyrics is all it takes to establish a lasting emotional bond.

People toss around the word "love" quite a bit in Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's chamber musical, Passion, based on Ettore Scola's film Passione d'Amore, but the more prominent emotions displayed by the piece's main trio - at least on the outset - are lust, obsession and perhaps more than a bit of self-centeredness. (Pity the press agent assigned to promote a show titled Self-Centeredness.)

Take the musical's opening duet, a post-coital reflection on individual happiness set to a melody that seems to echo the couple's exhausted afterglow. The authors tell us precious little about the relationship between the 19th Century Italian bedmates Georgio, a military man, and his lover Clara except that they met at one time or another after a glance in the park when each was taken with the other's look of sadness. "How quickly pity leads to love," they sing, somewhat prophetically.

Georgio sings of Clara's captivating qualities, all of which are part of her physical beauty, and since in director John Doyle's moody and equally captivating mounting for the Classic Stage Company the role is played by Melissa Errico, his enchantment at her physical charms is certainly believable. (Errico also brings her gorgeously light soprano and subtle acting skills to the role, but Georgio is probably less concerned with such matters.)

Ryan Silverman, who expected to be starring on Broadway in Rebecca around this time, is certainly a looker himself, and it's quite possible that Clara's love for Georgio is no more than a surface appreciation. The plot is set in motion when the handsome officer is transferred out of town, leaving the couple only able to communicate through letters. His new commander (the fine Stephen Bogardus in a largely functional role) has a reclusive, terminally ill cousin named Fosca, who is considered hideously ugly by the other soldiers. As played by Judy Kuhn, she looks more like an attractive woman who doesn't wear makeup. A simple act of kindness on Georgio's part leads to Fosca's obsessive desire to win his love, through pity, her wits, or whatever means she can muster.

Is it Georgio that Fosca wants, or just someone who will treat her Passionately in the short amount of time she has left? Kuhn's marvelously low-key performance makes Fosca less of a tragic figure and more of a clever woman willing to play a tragic role to secure her needs. And as the one-act musical proceeds, we learn more about Georgio's complicated relationship with Clara.

Passion contains the most plainspoken of Sondheim's lyrics and music that supports the conversational tone of the text. There's a seamless blend in and out of the sung and spoken words and no breaks for applause.

The minimalist setting was designed by Doyle - an elevated black marble floor - with Jane Cox's delicate lighting effectively embracing the drama's somber moods.

Despite winning the 1994 Tony Award for Best Musical, the original Broadway production of Passion only lasted a disappointing eight months. This first major New York reviVal May prove the piece worthier of a more cerebral Off-Broadway audience.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: Ryan Silverman, Melissa Errico and Judy Kuhn; Bottom: Judy Kuhn and Ryan Silverman.

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"Art is science made clear."
-- Wilson Mizner

The grosses are out for the week ending 3/3/2013 and we've got them all right here in BroadwayWorld.com's grosses section.

Up for the week was: MANILOW ON BROADWAY (12.3%), WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (7.6%), ANNIE (5.9%), THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD (5.0%), WICKED (4.1%), MARY POPPINS (3.8%), CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1.8%), ANN (1.4%), ROCK OF AGES (0.6%), MAMMA MIA!(0.3%),

Down for the week was: THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (-12.1%), CHICAGO (-7.9%), NEWSIES (-7.6%), JERSEY BOYS (-7.0%), ONCE (-6.9%), HANDS ON A HARDBODY (-5.5%), SPIDER-MAN TURN OFF THE DARK (-4.9%), NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT (-2.2%), THE LION KING (-2.1%), CINDERELLA (-1.9%), THE OTHER PLACE (-0.5%),

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