Musical aficionados and Rodgers & Hammerstein fans should plan a trip to see the production of Pipe Dream at the Berkshire Theatre Company’s Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge through Saturday, Aug. 31.
Pipe Dream was one of the team’s less successful shows, though it ran for nearly 300 performances (or until the huge advance sale ran out).
If you read the show’s history, it seems that every decision the team made turned out to be a mistake, from changes to the source material to casting.
Yet the show has some marvelous songs.
I wish I could say that this production redeems the show, but unfortunately, it does little to minimize the flaws.
The story is based on John Steinbeck’s characters he created for his novel Cannery Row, a group of ragtag misfits in Monterey, California. He even wrote a sequel story, Sweet Thursday, at the behest of producers Feuer and Martin, who thought some of the characters would make a musical.
The plot focuses on Doc, a marine biologist who works alone in his lab, the young woman (Suzy) who ends up in town, the madam (Fauna) of the local “house of ill-repute,” and some of the town residents.
The educated and generous Doc and the cynical, defensive Suzy are attracted to each other – but can the romance work?
Rather than recount all the poor choices and happenstances – a director who had never directed a musical, a cast that featured no major names, Rodgers’ illness and absence from the rehearsals, let’s focus on what is good about the show and this production.
First is the score. Four songs have become standards in cabaret acts, and others have been interpolated into other R&H shows.
“Everybody’s Got a Home but Me” is a haunting ballad for Suzy when she arrives in town. Doc’s “The Man I Used to Be” may be too lighthearted for the situation, but it is a lilting melody. And then there is “All at Once You Love Her,” a soaring romantic ballad. The show ends with another haunting ballad – “The Next Time It Happens.”
This production also featured some fine voices and performances. Joe Joseph plays Doc with sincerity but also incorporates a wistfulness in his interpretation of this solitary man who will go out of his way for others. I saw Hanna Koczela as Suzy; she was the understudy, but I can’t imagine the actress who plays the part being any better. Koczela combines Suzy’s cynicism and defensiveness while also revealing the hurt that has led to those. Sharone Sayegh is very good as the madam.
In supporting roles, Elijah Dawson as Hazel (his mother had so many sons, she ran out of boys’ names), Pierre Jean Gonzalez as Joe, and Hennessy Winkler as Mac are all excellent.
Another plus of this production is the evocative scenic design by Jimmy Stubbs which suggests the Cannery Row neighborhood. Kathleen Doyle’s costumes are fine. But both Evan C. Anderson as the lighting designer and Uptownworks as the sound designer really provide the ambiance, including the sound of waves and sea gulls.
Kat Yen’s direction could have done more to hide some of the material’s flaws. The first act drags, and the choreography by Isadore Wolfe often does not seem appropriate for the setting and characters. Too often, it feels shoe-horned in for the sake of having choreography.
I left the theater glad that I had seen the production. I had missed the NY City Center Encores production in 2012. Luckily that production produced a cast album that lets you enjoy the score.
It is clear that this material – the whorehouse and the ragamuffin residents – really weren’t Rodgers & Hammerstein métier. Feuer & Martin had tried to get Frank Loesser to write the score. R&H sanitizes it too much.
Yet, I believe that if the show was reworked into a one-act (90-100 minute) musical, it could work.
For tickets, visit BerkshireTheatreGroup.org.
