Paint Your Wagon
Paint Your Wagon
Encores! Special Event at City Center, NYC, March 22, 2015
Reviewed by Elizabeth Ahlfors for Cabaret Scenes
Keith Carradine (C) and cast
Photo: Joan Marcus
Those rough and tumble prospectors in rural northern California must have been born under a “Wand’rin’ Star,” believing that “Stayin’ put can kill ya/Standin’ still’s a curse.” With pan in hand and dreams of gold in their eyes, hearing any hint of a new gold vein, they were off, hoping to strike it rich.
Inspired by the adventures of 1853 miners, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe mined a lush musical jubilee of lusty songs abetted by Agnes de Mille’s exuberant dances. At New York City Center’s 2015 Encores! season, it was kick-up-your heels time with a vivacious revisit to Paint Your Wagon.
When the original production opened in New York in 1951, it had a sizable run, but lost money and was never revived in Broadway. The 1969 film version with Clint Eastwood, Jean Seberg and Lee Marvin sealed the coffin. While Loewe wrote a score that heralded the feeling of the raucous Wild West, Lerner’s book often rambled. The upside of this production, directed by Marc Bruni (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), was Marc Acito’s editing of the original book.
When rugged old-time prospector, widower Ben Rumson’s (Keith Carradine) young daughter, Jennifer, played by Alexandra Socha (Fun Home), accidentally spies a gold vein, her father quickly strikes his claim and the community is named Rumson Creek. Miners flock in and ambitious plans are born for future dancing girls and saloons. For now, however, the only girl in town is Jennifer, a tough, pint-sized tomboy with a go-getter voice, but she is only 16 and finds herself wondering, “What’s Goin’ On Here?” with all those lusting townsmen around. Ben decides to send her east to school.
Jennifer, meanwhile, falls in love with a fetching Mexican prospector, Julio Valveras (Justin Guarini, a runner-up on American Idol) and she refuses to leave town. Reading, writing, waiting? Who needs it? Impassioned, she sings “How Can I Wait?”
Things change when a Mormon, Jacob Wooding (William Youmans) comes to town from Utah with two wives. The lonely townsmen point out that since they have no women, Wooding should auction off one of the wives. Needing money, he agrees. Ben wins the auction, pays Wooding in gold and takes the eager and restless wife, Elizabeth (Jenni Barber), for himself. Jennifer, outraged, agrees to go east to school, but she and Julio solemnly promise to wait for her return and then marry.
When she returns to Rumson Creek earlier than expected, looking ladylike and able to read and write, alas, Julio is gone. Jennifer is heartbroken, but predictably all works out at the end.
The score, the dancing, the performers all evoke the Wild West enthusiasm, and lots of it. With the first downbeat by Rob Berman and his onstage orchestra, the attractive score recalls melodies like “They Call the Wind Maria.” A backdrop of trees is silhouetted with Peter Kaczoeowski’s evocative lighting. The rough-hewn wood set was designed by Anna Louizos, and Alejo Vietti dressed the cast for working in the hills and valleys.
While the sizable ensemble delivers sweeping harmonies, there are several standout vocalists, including the two young lovers played by Guarini and Socha, for one of the loveliest songs in the show, “I Talk to the Trees.” In his laid-back voice, Carradine (The Will Rogers Follies), your typical craggy outdoorsman, delivers a poignant remembrance of his late wife, “I Still See Elisa” and the notable “Wand’rin’ Star,” admitting his peripatetic nature. Nathanial Hackmann, a member of the ensemble, steps forward with soaring renditions of “They Call the Wind Maria” and “Another Autumn” (sung with Guarini backed by an enchanging dream ballet danced by Kevin Munhal and Darien Crago). Choreographed by Denis Jones, the stage is alive with vigorous dance numbers, primarily the saloon dancers’ spirited can-can and the company’s exuberant “Hand Me Down That Can o’ Beans”.
There’s gold in them thar hills, but it is the music that shines in Paint Your Wagon.
Category: Musical Theatre Reviews, New York City Musical Theatre Reviews, Off-Broadway Reviews
