Nevermore...my review

(Photos by Carol Pratt-of Dan Cooney, Florence Lacey, Lauren Williams, Jaqui Piro, Channez McQuay, and Amy McWilliams)

Nevermore...
my thoughts.


So, after posting all these other schmuck's "good ink", it dawned on me that I wanted to put my own 2 cents into the frying pan. I can feel the collective eye rolls now.
Am I biased?
A little.
But as I told Dan Cooney last night after seeing the show, I have heard this music 5 billion times, and seeing you do it is a whole different ballgame.
So here I go.
Nevermore whisks you into a surreal environ from the get-go. Hanging lights surge and dim from time to time...wind howls through the snarled trees...and you faintly start to see a figure on stage...the 5 women in Poe's life start to emerge before the musical begins....each in their own world, doing something indicative of their persona. Then the bells start chiming, they all seem to know what this means. A flutter of raven wings sounds in the air, lightning flashes, and the door opens...We see Edgar in the shadows...the women gasp a breath of life in unison...
Folks...the show is just starting now! OK-SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN!
The story that unfurls is a swirl of emotions and colors. Each of the women seem to be a different taste or palette to him. These women are the main elements of the story, because these women have been the story of his own life. Each woman is a different time period and place...
Virginia is innocence...yet hungry for the darker side that he has shown her...her terrifying descent is wrought with perfection by Lauren Williams. Muddy, Virginia's Mother, enters the stage and a discordant note is sustained...we see her silhouette walking down the hall, her hands clasped tight at her waist, the very picture of a wicked stepmother....but as we think that she is a wicked crone at first, we start to see that the things she fears are sad realities. She is a grounded, earthy source of reason. Channez McQuay brings such a reserved and constricted tone to the first part of her story line...then in the second....she shatters. She breaks your heart at a graveside scene. She almost knows that Virginia will die from the first scene...she knows Edgar's soul is far too black for little Virginia. We see then why Muddy holds herself like that...it is the image of a woman so coming apart at the seams that she has to hold herself in.
Jaqui Piro, playing Elmira, is all about yin and yang. She is the good to Poe's evil. She married a man who soon after died, and she is left alone...much like Edgar. Even her appearance is split in two. One half of her head is wigged, the other is bald...one half of her dress covers the shoulder, the other does not. When she speaks to Poe and says..."I understand.....there is a two-fold silence....sea and shore....body and soul.." I want to cry. From childhood, since she was his first love, and his last love, she has understood his demons, and sought to free them with her own passion for his soul. What is hysterical about this to me is that a local critic wrote about this section , saying that he wrote it down and tried to understand it but could not. How can you not see this? I had not read the new script, nor seen the costumes or wigs...She even says to him, "Our lives have had a certain symmetry, have they not?" Come on, folks...she is his soul mate. The only one who truly does understand him. Sadly, is the last to throw out the life line to him, and he does not accept it. This character is so rich and thick. One almost sees Elmira disappearing before Poe's eyes as he leaves...tears streaming down her defeated face as she pitifully begs..."Write to me...everyday...as you promised."
Amy McWilliams is credited as playing a composite character of a whore. I see her as much more than this...clad in blackish and purplish garb...she stalks Edgar from the beginning of the show..."What is it you seek?", she beckons. She adds later, "I can take you to the light..."
I see the Whore as death personified. As she cradles Edgar and sings Dreamland as he dies, she releases him from his torment. He tries to scribble on the floor as he is fighting death...she grips his hand to stop him, as the song she is singing continues, "Out of space, out of time.." The Time is up for Edgar, and she has been the one to foretell it from the top of the show.
Mother...as portrayed by Florence Lacey, is a mocking, toying, and intense force who leads Edgar through the trees of his subconscious. "Find me..", she says to Edgar, and that is his quest for the rest of the evening. She toys with him, mocks him, but most of all is a voice of truth. The truth that he doesn't want to hear.
And what of the man they are all so obsessed with? Dan Cooney gives an incredible performance of calculated madness. His Edgar slowy deteriorates as the show unfurls. His madness, that shows its highest levels in The Raven, is terrifying..the intensity that Cooney pours into this piece in palpable. When The Raven is over and he all but collapses, The venom in his words to Elmira is chilling..."You will destroy me..." And yet you still feel sorry for Edgar. Thanks to his boyish face, one can't help just wanting to hug him and tell him, "It's alright..." also, his vocal strength is undeniable.
The design components of this show are flawless. From the fantastic soundscape of this dreamland, to it's landscape. The set is a triumph...the bent and skewed trees have often been compared to rib bones, protecting a heart. The lights add the perfect atmosphere to this world. The costumes are brilliance. Jenn Miller's designs are nightmarish fashion couture...They capture the essence of this time period, then skew the perspective...gorgeous. Fantastic work by Mark Lanks, Derek McLane, Tony Angelini, and Jenn Miller.
Jenny Cartney handles the task of Music Direction and also plays the Piano for the show. She aptly handles the gorgeous Tunick orchestrations. Her work is apparent...the ensemble singing is very tight and very together.
Eric's direction is in its best form ever in this piece..he has created a world like none other...umbrellas float in the sky, chairs on the stage look like they are sinking into the ground...the activities that the actresses are doing on stage during someone else's scene, the pre-show creepiness...he knows exactly what he is doing and how to do it...
And lastly, of course...the score. I have always loved this music, and have heard it for 3 years now...but I never heard it really till I saw the show. The whole score is a master creation....even down to the underscoring. The powerhouse songs that stick in my brain are Annabel Lee, The Raven, Dreamland, and Silence. The music gets into your brain...it is lush, romantic, and fresh. Thank goodness that, as announced on the Kojo Nnamdi show, there will be a cast recording done that should be available for sale sometime near March. Just the fact that out of all the new musicals that Signature has done, this is the first to receive a cast recording..that says volumes about the score.
I know that you think I am biased, and maybe I am, but seriously...I have heard this music forever. I always had worries that the show's other components would not mesh well with the score...thank god my worries were unfounded. I had a very high bar set for this show....I was not disappointed in its end results one bit.
I have seen the show a total of 3 times now, and I am sure I will see it a couple more...and everytime I have seen it, it is better and better...more and more layers-as with any show, the actors are growing into to the piece even further now that they have settled the show in.
Predictions have the extension selling out by this weekend, if not tomorrow. I have no doubt that it will.
Nevermore is an amazing mind-bender of a musical. It lets you peer into the nightmare world of a creative genius...to ask a man who likes to frighten others, what frightens him. When he falls on the sidewalk and laughs for the second time, and Amy's character is there...it is an amazing mind fuck. It is truly a "Sixth Sense" moment.
It is extremely difficult to get a new musical off and running. It is extremely difficult to have one reach the stature this show has reached, so young in it's own life. The work that was poured into this piece is evident all around. This piece not only gets off the ground and runs, but it takes flight.