Book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, based on T.H. White’s “The Once and Future King”
Music by Frederick Loewe
Directed by Alan Paul
“Might for Right”
This production of a Lerner and Loewe masterpiece has cut my favorite number, “Then You May Take Me to the Fair,” in which Guinevere reveals her true nature as a flirt and seducer. It is, for me, a key moment for this show, and everything that follows it (about a third way through the first act) becomes understandable and right. Guinevere, the wife and queen of King Arthur, brings about the ruin of his life and his abiding dream of knighthood and an early form of democracy. Without this important moment in the show, what follows is simply hard to fully grasp. She falls in love, it would seem, with a Frenchman she despises. She has an affair. Fine. All well and good, but unless she seduces other men against him initially, her turnaround is not worth our time of day. Some people think Arthur’s illegitimate son Mordred is the villain of the story, but in fact it is Guinevere. At the start of the play, we discover she doesn’t want to marry the King. They never have children. She does her duty; Arthur falls in love with her—as do several of the knights, and Launcelot is caught in her romantic and sexual trap. Julie Andrews made it all so very clear. I missed this element of the show. It is what made it so different from other musicals in 1960 (“Bye, Bye Birdie”; “Irma LaDouce”; “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”; “Do-Re-Mi”; “Wildcat”).
This current production at Barrington Stage Company’s Boyd-Quinson Theatre in Pittsfield, however, has a lot to recommend it. A superb and attractive King Arthur (Ken Wulf Clark), a mesmerizing Launcelot (Emmett O’Hanlon), a seductive Mordred (Danny Kornfeld), and a funny King Pellinore (Dakin Matthews) more than make up for the missing sensuality. Lovely costumes by Lia Wallfish (originally by Ana Kusmanic), dazzling choreography by Brandon Bieber (originally by Mychele Lynch), superb lighting design by Christopher Akerlind, and excellent sound design by Ken Travis. With so much so right for this show, director Alan Paul has just missed the mark with his Guinevere (Ali Ewoldt).
Ewoldt has a lovely voice and a lean and lithe body. All to the good. What is missing, however, is the seductiveness that makes Guinevere an unscrupulous vixen who gets trapped in her own evildoing. Unlike Julie Andrews, with her sly manner and seductive qualities (don’t believe me, watch her movie “Darling Lili”), Ewoldt is a forthright and direct player who never lets the queen’s surreptitious manipulations take on the men around her. Guinevere needs to take the men around her down, and Ewoldt doesn’t do it.
Emmett O’Hanlon brings a dynamism to Launcelot that makes him overwhelmingly attractive. He handles swords as well as he handles Guinevere, and his scenes with Arthur almost shriek with poignancy and honesty. He is hard to buy as a duplicitous lover (something no one could claim about the original, Robert Goulet), but his accented sincerity in every line makes him a wonderful leading man. I look forward to one day seeing him in a lead role with no French accent.
A beautiful production of a marvelous musical with handsome stars brings us a long, fine, and emotional show that is very well worth seeing. Alan Paul has worked magic with this very fine production. It just does not match my memory of the original.
“Camelot” runs at the Boyd-Quinson Theatre on Union Street in Pittsfield through July 19. For information and tickets, visit Barrington Stage Company’s website or call (413) 236-8888.
