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(Theater Review) ELEGIES: A Song Cycle
8.18.05
BARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY
Elegies: A Song Cycle by William Finn
at the Mahaiwe Theatre
Great Barrington, Mass.
August 11-28, 2005
Directed by Rob Ruggiero
Starring Bradford William Anderson, Sandy Binion, Romain Fruge, Andre Ward, and Sally Wilfert
As if any further proof was needed, BARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY's current production of Elegies: A Song Cycle confirms that composer/lyricist William Finn stands shoulder-to-shoulder with [his fellow Williams College alumnus] Stephen Sondheim, widely regarded as the preeminent living composer for the musical theater.
Finn's mastery of composing for the stage is fully in evidence in this thematic song recital that, although it loosely strings together songs that, as the title indicates, function as elegies, or tributes to those who have passed on, needs no further book or dramatic underpinning to make the experience of seeing Elegies a gripping night at the theater.
As much as the individual songs, performed with sensitivity and aplomb by the assembled cast and aided by the marvelously barefooted pianist, Deborah Abramson, tell their own, unique stories -- each could easily be the germ of its own drama -- they cohere and by process of addition work together to create an entire world, or even a universe, which at its most basic is Finn's life and times, with particular focus on the loved ones -- friends, family members, pets -- that he has lost.
But Finn and Elegies's greatest success is the manner in which the song sketches -- which include portrayals from his personal life, as well as the life of the culture in the person of theater producer Joe Papp and fellow composers Jack Eric Williams and James Goldman -- function as reflections of the audience's world. True, it's a theatergoing audience to which it is directed, and to some extent a New York-centric one at that, but this is where the individual performances, and the music in particular, function as elements of transcendence, achieving something of a universality of concern without watering down the intensely personal nature of Finn's effort.
Elegies: A Song Cycle is also just a terrific showcase of Finn's composing art, including his gift for memorable phrases, rhymes, and couplets ("We ate kimchee and followed their traditions," "stuffing without nuts because men don't like nuts," "like grandpa remembering his shtetl," "Joe Papp never took crap," and, at his most comic in a work that is surprisingly funny, given its generically morbid slant, his description of Passover as "the feast of yeast"), his ability to establish character through song, and his talent for establishing a strong melodic theme and then allowing the dictates of content (the lyrics) to take the melody wherever it wants to go.
While Finn's musical style is wholly his own blend, those unfamiliar with it might recognize elements of Schubert, Stephen Foster, Kurt Weill, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, SOndheim, and Randy Newman in some of the surprising twists and turns his music takes.
The other aspect of Finn's work that comes across utterly successfully in this utterly enjoyable while poignant night in the theater is the deft manner in which Finn is able to deal with personal events of near tragic proportions -- including the plague of AIDS-related deaths that took so many of his friends and acquaintances in New York's theater community, and the horror of 9/11. That Finn is able to deal with this subject matter with the utmost sensitivity while fending off pity, cynicism, or self-indulgence is all the more to his credit as an artist and as a human being. What comes across in the end of this tribute to other people is precisely the sense of Finn as an incredibly decent human being, one whom anyone would be privileged to count as a friend. So in the end, ironically and totally unintentionally, Elegies works as a tribute to Finn himself. Which is, of course, the sign and measure of success of a true artist -- one whom we in the Berkshires just happen to be blessed to be able to count among ourselves as a part-time resident.
[To read more about William Finn, please see the August 2005 issue of
BERKSHIRE LIVING magazine, which includes an interview with the composer by author Dan Shaw.]
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