Over the past decade, freeFall Theatre has proven itself to be Tampa Bay’s premier producer of musical theater. Artistic Director Eric Davis with Musical Director Michael Raabe has built a team of musicians and designers, et. al. who bring Swiss watch precision and synchronicity to the effort.
freeFall’s pandemic solution has been to create an outdoor drive-in theater on the west side of its campus which sports huge screens for Davis to add video to the live performers and send the superbly mixed sounds through your car radio.
“Leonard Bernstein’s New York”: A live drive-in concert experience
Through May 9
freeFall Theatre
6099 Central Ave., St. Petersburg
727-498-5205; freefalltheatre.com
$35 single; 75-$99 per vehicle (4 people)
Their latest is a two-singer revue celebrating Leonard Bernstein’s New York, principally from his two shows with the brilliant team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green: “On the Town” (1944 when they were all over-achieving 20-somethings) and 1953’s Tony-winner, “Wonderful Town.” And, of course, the legendary “West Side Story,” which was a bit too intense for 1957 audiences, and introduced a young unknown lyricist named Stephen Sondheim. The 1962 Best Picture made “West Side Story” immortal for a wide-ranging audience, and now fans wait with baited breath for the new COVID-delayed remake from Steven Spielberg based on Tony Kushner’s revamped script that hits screens this December. Leonard Bernstein was a supernova in the constellation of American music—a charismatic teacher, flamboyant conductor, and prolific composer of iconic symphonic and Broadway music.
For lovers of his Broadway scores especially, the full orchestrations are missed. Not that Raabe and his superb team of musicians (who also delightfully show up on screen) don’t do their usual bang-up job. And the estimable Rob Fisher, who for so many years resuscitated old musicals for the Encores series at NYC’s City Center, provides terrific scaled down arrangements that bravely tackle orchestral gems from “Wonderful Town” and even the thrilling mambo from “West Side Story.” Davis does his best to fill the screen with pizzazz and even flashes “MAMBO” red in all caps to distract us from the indelible memory of Jerome Robbins’ choreography.
One of the highlights is “Come Up to My Place” from “Wonderful Town.” Davis is able to show his actors in an iconic NY taxi on the screen, which the audience views straight on through the windshield. Lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green switch the usual paradigm of the horny guy coming on strong to his new gal pal. Instead, the naive man overwhelmed and excited by his first visit to NYC, repeatedly ignores the female cabbie’s brazen pleas for romance. It’s a comic gem that was quite suggestive for 1943 and a chance for Julia Rifino to shine. She also delivers a spirited version of the saucy double entendres in “I Can Cook Too” surrounded by a circle of flickering flames in the encore, lest we miss the point.
Davis outfits Rifino in a luscious red dress with a cinched waist, rolled collar and flowing, flared pleats that, along with her hairdo, create a silhouette straight out of a 1950s sitcom or an ad for Lucky Strikes. Carrero, by comparison, fades away visually, in a blue checked shirt and khaki pants. Tom Hansen lights his “erector set” set with dynamic flair of color and patterns.
Davis’s video reinforces the action with a rich panoply of memorable images from a gargantuan full moon to swirling tendrils of smoke. The city is seen from every iconic angle, era, time of day, and speed of image imaginable, ending with a striking white vortex of a swirling musical staff filled with notes that have jumped the page and ultimately burst into fireworks.
Emmanuel Carrero sings like an angel. But Leonard Bernstein’s songs are like capturing lightning in a bottle. Bernstein’s striking music is at its best when the beautiful sounds resonate with dramatic flair. What’s missing here are the emotional colors that dramatic context provides—the ceaseless anticipation in “Something’s Coming,” the volcanic euphoria of “Maria” and the fervent plea for the bond of unbreakable love in “One Hand, One Heart.” I want a bit more devil in the details. The sweetness that made Carrero such a delicious and memorable Yum Yum in freeFall’s landmark all-male “Mikado” a few years back, softens what Jerry Robbins called the “kinetic motor” of the work.
Likewise, it’s hard to project the desperate humor of the siblings in “Wonderful Town” clinging to each other in “Ohio” when social distancing won’t allow for the actors to touch.
The evening features two rarely heard numbers for which Bernstein also penned the lyrics. “I Hate Music” from his 1943 song cycle for kids which features unpredictable intervals and dissonance often associated with his scores. I was shocked, for it’s been decades since I heard this sung (I was dating a soprano). And the lovely “Build My House” from his forgotten 1950 “Peter Pan” (the other one without Mary Martin) which hints at the emotional finale from “Candide,” one of his finest scores, but decidedly not New York.
Even divorced from their dramatic context, these songs make for a very pleasant evening. But everything about Lenny was larger than life and this brisk hour conjures up a human instead of a giant.
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This article appears in Apr 15-22, 2021.