POWER COUPLE: de Benedet and Phillips. |
You’ve got to hand it to the Obama team for going that extra step. What awesome organizing ability, to arrange for the musical Camelot to open at the Providence Performing Arts Center (through March 9) on the night of his dashed hopes for a Rhode Island primary election victory.
Yes, a case can be made that the lessons many take away from the legend of the Knights of the Round Table are hopelessly naïve. But, of course, no less a hard-bitten political realist than JFK, along with wife Jackie, adopted the 1960 Lerner and Loewe musical as their unabashed inspiration. For the moment we will forget any disparity between the Round Table’s “Might for Right” ethos and the Bay of Pigs invasion.
But seriously. There is a charming frankness and honesty to this portrayal of the way the world works. Based on T.H. White’s wise and wonderful novel The Once and Future King, the tale is an account of how idealism develops, personally and politically. But it doesn’t neglect to remind us how towering ideals can crumble when creatures as flawed as we human beings have constructed them. And it does so without giving much ammunition to cynics: all the tragic flaws depicted here are falls from greatness.
Look how easy it is to identify with these characters, if you have any spark of pride that could be fanned into hubris. The story is framed by King Arthur (Lou Diamond Phillips) thinking about his mistakes as he wanders his camp on the eve of battle, a fight resulting from his weakness as a kind leader and a trusting husband.
One of the wonderful things about this musical is how precisely the songs amplify feelings at crucial moments, feelings that would otherwise only be mentioned in passing. When Arthur is baffled at the ways of Guenevere (Rachel de Benedet), “How to Handle a Woman” doesn’t come across as instructional exposition but rather as heartfelt (hint: love her). Similarly, “I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight?” conveys their being somewhat bored with each other, setting us up for her falling for Lancelot.
Although Phillips lacks the solid physical presence, and the booming baritone, of Richard Burton, who originated the role, he’s quite right as King Arthur. His singing voice is fine, and he can raise himself up to royal stature well enough, but his real coup is in providing a boyish vulnerability. Arthur’s nickname has been Wart, after all, from the time he was a humble squire who pulled the sword out of the stone to earn his right to become king. Phillips still has in him the buoyant Ritchie Valens of 20 years ago in La Bamba.
Related:
Interview: John Hodgman, Our superheroes, ourselves, And then some..., More 
- Interview: John Hodgman
Long before John Hodgman became universally recognized as the systems-challenged PC in Apple’s ads, he was writing fake trivia for such publications as McSweeney’s and the New York Times Magazine.
- Our superheroes, ourselves
Is there a breed of person more tenderly optimistic, more winsomely hopeful for the best, more loyal to the possibility of good, than the American summer moviegoer?
- And then some...
Aside from the second season of Mad Men , Barack Obama, and Puppycam, I think we can all agree that it was a pretty mediocre year in national pop culture.
- The Big Hurt: Clubbing baby seals: not okay
Pop icon RICKY MARTIN paid a humanitarian visit to Cambodia recently in support of victims of sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
- The Year of the Nerd
Barack Obama is many things. Dedicated senator. Devoted husband and father. Adept orator. President-elect. Nerd.
- Breaking it down
There are so many things wrong with this review, both factually and in his dismissal and apparent ignorance of the whole culture of hip-hop.
- Rakim: Return of the King
As long as the Microsoft linguists who're responsible for updating Word are adding "Barack" and "Obama" to the spell-check dictionary, they should throw in "Rakim."
- Ask Spin Cycle
Here at the Global Worldwide Headquarters of “Spin Cycle,” up to several letters have poured in during the past few days seeking our sage advice on all things electoral.
- Youth in the booth
Sometime since 1976 — just four years after 18 year olds were granted the right to vote but decided they’d rather not — the youth movement has become a joke.
- Fourth-estate follies!
Granted, other years have had flashier media embarrassments (Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass), but that doesn't mean that 2008 lacked for media misdeeds.
- The ‘A’ word
How can the media cover a subject that nearly everyone’s thinking about, but is almost too abhorrent to discuss?
- Less
Topics:
Theater
, Barack Obama, Entertainment, Richard Burton, More
, Barack Obama, Entertainment, Richard Burton, Performing Arts, Musicals, Theater, Broadway Shows, Ritchie Valens, Providence Performing Arts Center, CAMELOT, Less
