SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, May 13, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Pioneer Theatre Company’s production of “The Count of Monte Cristo” takes its audience on an epic journey, following one character as he goes from happy and innocence to hopeless and despairing, then to rage and vengeance-driven, and back toward toward hope.
Sometimes the dramatic journey seems too long, and the production does hit a few minor bumps along the road, but there is a lot to see and enjoy along the way.
“The Count of Monte Cristo” is a musical adaptation of the 1844 Alexandre Dumas novel. This stage version has music by Frank Wildhorn and book and lyrics by Jack Murphy, whose most famous collaboration is “The Civil War.”
The story begins with the engagement of Edmund Dante and his love, Mercedes, followed by a wedding at which one man covets Edmund’s new job and another his new wife. A third man has his own motives for helping get Edmund out of the way, and into prison.
Many years later, a fellow prisoner provides Edmund with an education, a means of escape, and access to funding that will allow him to reinvent himself as the Count of Monte Cristo, a mysterious stranger who seems to be targeting everyone who did Edmund wrong.
This production, directed and choreographed by Tony winner Marcia Milgrom Dodge, stars Matt Farcher and Briana Carlson-Goodman as Edmund and Mercedes.
Farcher gives a strong performance throughout, as a hopeful young man, a prisoner who has lost everything, and a powerful man who has everything but what he wants. Carlson-Goodman gives the best performance, and makes the audience feel the joy or pain in every line she sings, and forget she is an actress on stage.
Darren Ritchie, Brandon Contreras and John Schiappa are frighteningly convincingly in each of their back-stabbing roles. And another standout is Dathan B. Williams as Edmund’s fellow prisoner. He provides sage advice and comic relief.
The set is both simple and complex. It’s a lavish staircase, which turns and takes on additional pieces to form every setting the story needs, from an elegant manor to a dank prison, to a pirate ship and diverse locales between.
The costumes are impressive when they stick to the show’s historic period. Departures include the metallic leather outfit Edmund wears when he returns as Monte Cristo; and the steam punk inspired pirates who pluck Edmund from the sea. Also distracting is some onstage hairdressing.
This is the fourth production of “The Count of Monte Cristo,” with limited runs in Europe and Asia, and a student production at Brigham Young University. Young shows usually evolve in their early years, with the writers making the script tighter and better each new production.
This is a strong script that could use a tad more editing, and perhaps the removal of a few songs and verses.
But if you go knowing that depicting more than two decades will take two and a half hours, you can sit back this musical in its first professional production in America. And those are some pretty impressive bragging rights.
