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Romeo and Bernadette
By Dorrie Weiss
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The real story, in this version, is that Romeo did not drink poison, but a sleeping potion that turned out to be truly long-acting. It preserved him more efficiently than cryogenics could ever have done. He wakes about three hundred years later in Verona, unaware of the fact that he has been sleeping, and sees his Juliet, whose name is Bernadette. Unfortunately, she is the daughter of a Brooklyn mobster and is on her way home to marry the operator of her father's choice. Romeo follows her to Avenue Z, using for his plane fare some of the gold coins in his pocket. Don't ask how he gets through customs – in this play, you not only suspend disbelief: you hang it up by the thumbs. With his Renaissance grace and his bulging codpiece, Romeo is an instant hit with the ladies. His new friend teaches him how to speak Brooklynese. You don't say, I think not, Sire. Using two forceful words, you say "Fergedd aboudit."
In this musical, with book and lyrics by Mark Saltzman, camp meets opera. The voices in the production are great, especially the men's voices, and the actors move easily from farce to song. It is a hilarious Neverland where Charles Ludlum salutes Puccini, and the cast belts out old Neopolitan songs as though they were performing in La Scala.
The ten actors play their roles broadly. The burly Mr. Almon, slipping in and out of seven parts, is cast as a flamboyant homosexual who crosses gender barriers with ease, playing simpering men and overbearing women. Andrew Varela is cast as the Tito, the villain you would love to hate if it weren't that he sang so beautifully. Adam Monley sings Romeo with warmth and charm, and Andy Karl, his friend, pulls the audience into his confidence with a knowing wink.
Saltzman lampoons convention with a force that is far too strong for its silly targets. It is like watching a man with a baseball bat trying to swat a fly. In the subsequent breakage, laughter becomes the only possible response. In his take on the language of clothing, for example, he uses Polonius's dictum that "the apparel oft proclaims the man" and puts Bernadette, getting ready to marry the wrong man, in a wedding gown festooned with fanny-bows . It is so tight that she waddles and shimmies, hardly able to walk. The couturier, the ubiquitous Mr. Almon, is wearing a Chanel suit with spike heels so high that he can barely toddle up the stairs. In another scene, Tito has been ordered to learn to dance in preparation for the wedding. Mr. Almon is a big-breasted martinet who claims she once studied with Agnes de Mille. Tito refuses to learn, and pulls a gun on the dance teacher – who promptly rebuts his argument with Miss de Mille's rifle.
The play has been meticulously staged and directed. The set is dominated by a pair of overhanging balconies. (Where would Romeo be without a balcony?) Farce depends upon timing, and the timing here is impeccable.
Romeo and Bernadette pulls the audience into the action and the complicity is disarming. A request that the audience help urge a young woman from her room is met with a roar of "Come down! Come down!" At one point, during a gun duel, the mobster's gun slips off the stage, and someone in the front row hands the gun back up to the stage. Then the play continues. ( I'm told that at one performance during the Miami run, the patron refused to return the gun, either from acquisitiveness or pacifism. It took some urging to get it back.)
Saltzman observes the conventions of Shakespeare's comedies. The hero is adrift in an alien land and forges a loyal relationship with a man whose life he saves. He wins the woman he loves despite impossible odds. There is a case of misdirected love. In the end, the couples are sorted out and everything ends with the Shakespearian theme of reconciliation, where moral judgements are suspended in favor of a peaceful resolution. Brooklyn becomes Illyria. But enough of literary comparisons. Do you think this is a play to be analyzed rather than laughed at? Fergedd aboudit!
| Romeo and Bernadette
Written by Mark Saltzman Directed by Mark Waldrop Associate Director - Patrick Parker Music Direction/Arrangement by - Bruce W. Coyle Cast (in order of appearance): Romeo / Adam Monley Juliet/Bernadette Penza / Natalie Hill Brooklyn Guy/Dino Del Canto / Andy Karl Brooklyn Girl/Donna Dubacek / Rosie De Candia Camille Penza / Emily Zacharias Sal Penza / Charles Pistone Tito Titone / Andrew Varela Lips / Vince Trani Don Del Canto / David Brummel Enzo Aliria, Officer, Father Keneely, Arden, Donna's Father, Viola Duke, Roz/- John Paul Almon Set Design: Michael Anani Costume Design: Miguel Angel Huidor Lighting Design F. Mitchell Dana Original Sound Design: Steve Shapiro Sound Design: Duncan Robert Edwards and David F. Shipiro Papermill Playhouse, Millburn NJ (973) 376-4343 For directions check the Papermill web site 2/19/23-3/23/03; opening 2/22/03 Reviewed by Dorrie Weiss based on February 22nd performance |
At This Theater
Leonard Maltin's 2003 Movie and Video Guide
Ridiculous!The Theatrical Life & Times of Charles Ludlam
Somewhere For Me, a Biography of Richard Rodgers
The New York Times Book of Broadway: On the Aisle for the Unforgettable Plays of the Last Century
6, 500 Comparative Phrases including 800 Shakespearean Metaphors by CurtainUp's editor.
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