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WPCNR In the Corner Box. Review by John F. Bailey. February 3, 2006, UPDATED 6:30 P.M. E.S.T.: The moment Stephanie Youell’s sensual Cleopatresque silhouette of the Egyptian Princess Amneris, emerges in the shadow of a towering temple, observinging an archeological tour group, this musical trip into the mysteries, passions and violence of ancient Egypt mesmerizes the audience.
Delivering the Passion That Lovers Are Made of: Rozz Morehead-Santos as AIDA and Eric Sciotto as Radames in Thursday Evening’s production AIDA at the Westchester Broadway Theatre. Photo, Courtesy, WBT, by John Vecchiolla.
Ms. Youell’s haunting, Every Story Is a Love Story, opens WBT’s most ambitious and compelling offering of the season enthralls the audience in the eternal fascination of ancient Egypt and the rare stage pairing of a romantic duo who deliver the passion lovers are made of.
You are swept through the magic of George Puello’s ingenious set design and Andrew Gmoser’s lighting (the most creative we’ve seen on WBT), into the bloodlust of conquest aboard an Egyptian galleon captained by dashing lead Eric Sciotto as conquerer of Nubia. Radames the conquerer, sets the mood of conflict with his Fortune Favors the Brave thrilling the adventurer in us all.
The audience is next seduced by the earthy, regal panther, Rozz Morehead-Santos as the Nubian Princess Aida captured by Radames’ men. In chains, she laments The Past is Another Land, with a regret and a longing that chills and warms simultaneously. These are the first of many emotions in store as Morehead-Santos simply takes your suppressed emotions and reconnects you with the way you used to feel.
For the first time in a long time, Mr. Sciotto and Ms. Morehead-Santos are a leading man and lady who show electricity and attraction between them. Their instant sparks send vibrations to every heart in audience.
They make their hate-love relationship believable despite the wretched dialogue of the notoriously weak book by Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls and David Henry Hwang (the book for this 4 year Broadway hit was six years in the making and still needs work). The two seize your attention the first time you see them together with heart-beating duets with the ornate texture of opera, the rich energy of rock lust, the truth of a 1940s ballad. Mr. Sciotto’s and Ms. Morehead-Santos’ three duets of Enchantment Passing Through, Elaborate Lives, and Written in the Stars make the heart within you beat faster again.
The pyramidal passion they lavish on Elton John’s keyboard based score and Tim Rice’s sensitively articulate and evocative lyrics pours out in every song. Elaborate Lives lays out the audience, bringing bravos (before intermission) with its intensity at the close of Act I.
Stephanie Youell is Amneris, (the Egyptian beauty Sciotto no longer finds attractive), though he is betrothed to her. He is smitten by the pride and independence of Aida. He gives Aida to Amneris as a slave and his fascination with the proud Nubian beauty begins.
Youell holds her own telling the absurd modern jokes that she is given to deliver that provide cute comic relief from the magnetic man-woman electricity between Sciotto and Morehead-Santos on the stage. When we first meet her she emerges from what appears to be a passage in a tomb (as the audience goes back in time).
LAS VEGAS ON THE NILE: Stephanie Youell (in white) as Princess Amneris with Women of the Palace, grabs the attention of every male in the audience with her Mamie Van Doren figure, walking like an Egyptian with her hand-maidens in the plush Egyptian court, singing My Strongest Suit. Photo, Courtesy, WBT, By John Vecchiolla
Having to play a blonde Amneris, (perhaps the only Egyptian Blonde of all time), as first a Marilyn Monroe type, she makes the tortuous character contortion from Egyptian ditz to Cleopatra-like stateswoman (writing reminescent of the looney character switch of the flower shop owner and her lover in Flower Drum Song) to delivering her laments at discovering Sciotto’s Radames’ infatuation with Aida. Ms. Youell’s I Know the Truth rendered in her robust contralto creates an honest and sensitive rapport with the audience.
Trios and Quartets
Youell, Morehead-Santos, and Sciotto shine together in the startling starry opening of Act II, singing A Step Too Far together, displaying the anxiety of a love forbidden. This is spectacular.
Sciotto, Youell and Morehead Santos form a quarter with Eric Jackson as Mereb singing Not Me, another number exploring the conflicting of hearts.
The only drawback to the score of AIDA is, though they say a lot through the Rice lyrics, you are not going to leave humming them. There are no “Nothing Like A Dames” in this musical. The songs say a lot, and you have to listen hard. The singers are almost too good in this show because they overmodulate on the solo microphones, sometimes distorting. There are no numbers in this show where you fall asleep either, and it goes by fast.
Best Supporting Actors
Radames father, Zoser has plans to take over the Pharoah’s throne, with Radames marrying Amneris and becoming Pharoah when Pharoah dies. Radames love for Aida changes the plan and creates a conflict. Radames after much indecision with love for Aida and Aida’s need to free her Nubian countrymen conflicting her love for him, well it’s an Egyptian Days of Our Lives, let’s put it that way.
Rozz Morehead-Santos as Aida and Carla Woods as Nehebka performing The Gods Love Nubia. Photo, Courtesy WBT, by John Vecchiolla
John Schiappa as Zoser, the plotting Prime Minister to the Pharoah is reminiscent of Ming the Merciless, Flash Gordon’s old enemy, evil and believable. He and Sciotto, as Radames, his son, stage a great argument in song in Like Father, Like Son – an emotion charged duel, as Radames fights to get out of his marriage. Schiappa as Zoser also delivers an amusing little plot song, Another Pyramid.
The fate of the lovers hangs in the balance until the end. The climax plays with your emotions ending with Sciotto and Morehead-Santos’ plaintive, but uplifting reprise of Elaborate Lives as we return to the present.
AIDA marches in.
AIDA features the best voices and musical actors seen on this stage in months. They deliver a musical where every number commands your attention and involves your emotions. They create the conflict between love and duty and sacrifice.
The 10-musician, live orchestra lead by David Andrews Rogers delivers big Broadway Sound in the little theater. John Daniels, Janice Aubrey and John Bowen delivered the driving keyboard sounds Elton John is known for, while the inventive use of reeds, delivered the signature sound of the nee, the provocative Egyptian flute lending much mystery and spiritual atmosphere.
This is by far the most creative use of the venerable dock stage of Westchester Broadway Theatre I have seen. From braziers hanging from the ceiling, from costumes elaborate and rich with unique hair styles and spectacular creation of a galleon sailing off into the fog, and the magnificent Egyptian temple set, the eternality of Egypt is recreated in Elmsford, reminding us that the violent era it portrays is much like our own of today.
Even though you know it is only a set, the show gives you the feel of Egypt and the never-changing forces that drive human nature.
I messed up a line.
I am remiss, ladies and gentleman. This show was so solid, I completely overlooked the person who pulled this Pyramid of a production together, Director/Choreographer, Patricia Wilcox.
Director/Choreographer Patricia Wilcox has, as a reader of the first edition of this review pointed out, done an “outstanding job:” Her direction hewned a show from ponderous blocks of schmaltz that is flawless with transitions that flow, dances that do not fill time, and intrigue the eye (but without too many floor routines) and has crafted actor relationships with stormy and tender edges that carve into the heart. Here is a musical that is beyond the routine musical that consists of saying a few lines and singing a clever song.
It is a credit to Wilcox’s skills that the show creates a De Mille spectacle on a stage shorter and narrower than tennis court that makes the show look as big as a broadway house. She has drawn from the entire crew a team effort that takes over the audience and will not let it go.
And isn’t that the goal of a director to get a show to the point where it is dead on perfect, down the middle and in the hole, no lip-outs, no throw away scenes, that harpies like me do not say “See, see…that should have been smoother?” (Excuse me, Ms. Wilcox, Mr. Webber is calling, Mr. Simon is on line two, and the Schubert Organization is on your cellphone.)
AIDA plays the WBT through April 29, and you get a superb dinner or luncheon with the show for about half the cost of a Broadway ticket. For information call (914) 592-2222, or go to the WBT website, www.broadwaytheatre.com.
