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| Samantha Massell and Christian Michael Camporin. Photo by Diane Sobolewski |
How do you respond to a musical
that obviously has its heart in the right place, has a great cast and
impressive production values? Perhaps not with the shrug I offered it as the
rest of the opening night audience leapt to its feet in approbation. I stood
also, if only to flex my knees. Obviously, there was a disconnect here, but as
I watched Rags unfold at Goodspeed
Musicals, I often found myself thinking I was being preached to rather than
being entertained, and that Joseph Stein (book – revised by David Thompson) and
Stephen Schwartz (lyrics) were trying just a bit too hard to strum the heart
strings (i.e., manipulate), and that Charles Strouse’s music just sounded all
of a piece. So, sue me.
There’s no denying that the staging
of Rags, under the capable direction
of Rob Ruggiero, is up to Goodspeed’s high standards, yet the material simply
does not allow the Goodspeed folks to strut their stuff. By that I mean there
are no big production numbers that blow you away, no pop and sizzle, and you
certainly don’t come away whistling any tunes.
For my money (of course, I didn’t
pay for the tickets), what we have in Rags
is essentially Ragtime meets Fiddler on the Roof, although it has
neither the depth nor the breadth of either show. What it does have is a
marvelous cast, headed by the impressive, multi-talented Samantha Massell as
Rebecca, supported by a sprightly and engaging Sara Kapner as Bella. Their two
characters meet on a boat that is headed for New York
harbor, for they are refugees fleeing the numerous pogroms that occurred in
middle Europe in the early twentieth century.
When they arrive at Ellis Island , Rebecca doesn’t have the $20 to pay for
entry into the country, but Bella urges her father, Avram (Adam Heller) to
vouch for Rebecca and her son, David (Christian Michael Camporin). They all soon
find themselves ensconced in the cramped rooms of a Lower East Side tenement
building, sheltered by Anna (Emily Zacharias) and Jack Blumberg (Mitch
Greenberg), who do garment piecework for Max Bronfman (David Harris), purveyor
of dresses to the up-town crowd, personified by the snobbish Quintet (J. D.
Shaw, Ellie Fishman, Danny Lindgren, Sarah Solie and Jeff Williams).
The show deals with the inherent
dislike and fear of immigrants that seems to be woven into the American
character (excuse me, but is that Donald Trump as Lady Liberty defying
immigrant entry, compliments of projections by Luke Cantarella?). There’s also
the never-ending class warfare pitting workers against the owners of the means
and methods of production, flavored by a lot of scenes that evoke Jewish
culture, with a bit of Catholicism thrown in for good measure via the Italians
and Irish who got “here” first…and, of course, Rebecca must fall in love with
someone not of her faith: Sal (Sean MacLaughlin), a rabble-rousing Italian.
It’s engaging material, and I
wanted to care for the characters, but I just couldn’t, mainly because they
mostly seem to be stereotypes and also because throughout the evening I kept on
hearing and seeing echoes of other musicals. I know, they say there’s nothing
new under the sun, but Rags wears its
derivations on its ragged sleeve and for me that was off-putting.
Billed as “An American Musical”
(vs. what – a Serbro-Croation musical?), Rags
does have its moments. The “Shabbos / Latin Mass” scene (Jewish and Catholic
rites counterbalanced) is very effective, the “Children of the Wind” theme
blended with Cantarella’s projections is, yes, haunting, and as reprised by
Massell at the end of the show, certainly rates show-stopper status, and “Three
Sunny Rooms,” featuring a dual love interest is sweet and nicely staged. So why
am I kvetching? Perhaps because Rags
isn’t Fiddler on the Roof or Ragtime. Most will say “That’s not
fair!” and perhaps it isn’t, but the echoes compel comparison.
Rags
runs through December 10. For tickets or more information call 860.873.8668 or
visit: www.goodspeed.org.
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