WPCNR ON THE AISLE. Review By John F. Bailey. December 12, 2007: Robert Cuccioli’s charismatic performance as Don Quixote and Rosena Hill’s haunting Dulcinea in the new White Plains Performing Arts Center production of Man of La Mancha give the White Plains Performing Arts Center new life. Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. White Plains have just 4 more shows to catch this duo and their company at the WPPAC.
Robert Cuccioli Emerges as Man of La Mancha.
Mr. Cuccioli commands the stage acting and singing. His opener, Man of La Mancha has the rollicking thrill of adventure of a western theme song that makes Quixote not an old man to be pitied, but suddenly the heroic figure we all imagine ourselves that we could be. You root for him, you want him to succeed. As Sancho his sidekick sings, you like him.
Rosena Hill gives the underwritten role of Aldonza , the sixteenth Century Inn housemaid/chattelle, moxie, savvy and toughness tempered with previously unlocked awakening of emotions in three solos of delicate precision in vivid operetic style — here she is suspicious of an adoring Don Quixote as her lusting inn louts look on.
Cuccioli masters acting three parts. He is Miguel de Cervantes (the Inquisition-jailed playwright, poet who tells the Quixote story to his fellow prisoners in the Inquisition dungeon); Alonso Quijana, the delusional noble who believes he is Don Quixote a knight of yore out to confront the evil knight, The Great Enchanter. And of course, Quixote himself. He actually transforms himself into Quixote before the audience — a feat of theatrical magic.
He is a pleading meek Cervantes attempting to protect himself against his fellow prisoners by creating a play for them to save his manuscript. He captures the nuances of a delusional person spot on in his Don Quixote. His Quixote makes you believe in dreams again, awakens forgotten courage with an on-the-edge, straight-at-you, committed rendering of his big song , The Impossible Dream at the beginning of Act II.
He turns The Impossible Dream signature song from the sweet crooner’s staple we are used to hearing that has marked the song in the past, into a majestic anthem robust with machismo, edge, commitment bringing out the lion’s heart in the observer like Hail to the Victors. His soliquoy starting Act II leading into this song instantly grabs the attention of the audience in which he shares the self-doubt everyone has when summoning courage.
Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. White Plains have just 4 chances to hear Mr. Cuccioli sing The Impossible Dream. You’ll come out of the theatre ready to start a revolution.
Do not expect a romantic duo of Cuccioli as Quixote and Rosena Hill as Dulcinea approaching this show, their relationship is different.
Ms Hill in her limited scripted lines renders the rough, tough personna of a loose sixteenth century trollop.
Her three big songs get to you. You experience Aldonza’s hope rising and falling with her solos. In act one, She colors in the suspicion, touching bewilderment and growing wonder that a man, (Quixote) could actually think her a person of value when she delivers Act I’s What Does He Want of Me? I loved this song.
In Act II, the pity of her character, and the depth of her heartbreak, is chillingly etched like cut glass by her singing Aldonza after she is assaulted by the inn thugs. The clear edge of her soprano is deeply moving. The pain of realizing dreams only to be dashed just when hope is brightest works the heart strings. theater. Her crystal like voice carves a hurt that will wound your heart.
In her ultimate moment when she refreshes Quixote’s memory of them while he is dying by singing Dulcinea at one of several pinnacles of the show, her voice descends like teardrops in gentle waves, ascends like joy, growing ever stronger with each new plateau of pitch that heals your heart as she had wounded it before.
Cuccioli is supported by a cast that works with him well – despite his pathological charisma. Carlos Lopez (right) as Sancho Panza, Quixote’s squire, provides great Danny DeVito-like comedy relief.
Viewers be warned the show has laughs to lighten the Spanish Inquisition up, but there are dark moments, very dark moments, after all it is the Inquisition. Mr. Lopez’s Sancho Panza provides those light hearted moments in The Missive that he delivers to Ms. Hill in Act I, attempting to apprise her of Quixote’s devotion to her, followed by his explanation for following Quixote, I Really Like Him.
When Cuccioli is offstage – the cast carries the narrative well. The prisoners in the Sixteenth Century prison where all the action takes place are incorporated into Cervantes, the new prisoner’s play. The audience actually sees a play within a play. Quixote’s being dubbed knight by the innkeeper (Robert Quisley) singing Knight of the Woeful Countenance is a fine comic scene. The Moorish dance (reflective of Cervantes real-life imprisonment by the Moors during his lifetime) is very entertaining.
The lowlifes of the Inn sing Little Bird, Little Bird where they stalk Hill as Aldonza, the inn trollop is high camp. The stirring march, The Golden Helmet of Mambrino is another comic moment featuring the entire company There is a brawl at the imagined inn in which Quixote and Sancho “save” Hill from the menacing Muleteers, and for a moment idealism triumphs, but only for a moment. The eventual plight of Hill at the mercy of the lowlifes is gratuitously graphic for a family audience and could have left more to the imagination, the director Luke Yankee’s only mistake.
Quixote’s quest comes to an end when the Great Enchanter knight confronts him and the play moves to its conclusion, when Cervantes himself back in real time is summoned by The Inquistor. You have to follow this musical carefully to get whether you are back in the prison or in the play Cervantes the author is creating for the prisoners.
The set by Michael Hotopp with its perpetual fog has the grim towering power of authority and gloom with shafts of light that cruelly mock the plight of its captives. The tricks that Lighting Designer Thom Weaver executes contribute eloquently to mood transitions especially with Cuccioli’s Impossible Dream highlight.
The orchestra was directed by Steven Gross – and to his musicians’ credit, Jay Hassler, Lisa Pike, Dan Urness, and Jonathan Gleich – laid musical beds for Mr. Cuccioli and Ms. Hill – without overpowering the lyrics; they subtlely bridged scenes with just-right interludes and made the singers the stars.
WPPC’s Man of La Mancha – Mr. Batman’s first major production for WPPAC is hopefully what the theatre needs. If Jack Batman, the new Executive Producer of the White Plains Performing Arts Center succeeds in saving the WPPAC, he will owe a part of it to Mr. Cuccioli and Ms. Hill and the obvious team effort that delivered this great show. Man of La Mancha will lose money yes, perhaps, but it gives credibility that WPPAC can deliver shows that you will want to see.
In one great mesmerizing matinee Sunday, Cuccioli (1990s Broadway’s Dr. Jekyll, Westchester Broadway Theatre’s original Phantom) the actor-singer of the El Greco countenance anchored, delivered and articulated a production WPPAC had to have from him — a must-see. A truly clutch professional performance. Many a great moment.
The WPPAC gave you Broadway North Sunday afternoon up close where every seat is Broadway Orchestra close. It has even dressed up its lobby with an art gallery and piano music before the show, slowly turning WPPAC into a theatre experience.
If you care about theatre in White Plains – you should see this show. Perhaps all who have seen it will give the previously troubled theatre the second chance it needs. WPPAC created the magic of a smash Broadway production that all who see it will not forget. It is easily the best performance WPPAC has ever done.
Too bad it cannot be held over for the Ritz opening. For information on seats left, go to www.wpac.com. or contact 914-328-1600`
