The Light in the Piazza
Recreating an Italian honeymoon forges an unexpected love story in "The Light in the Piazza".
Italy, the land of paintings, churches and amour is the setting for the incandescent musical The Light in the Piazza , currently on stage at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre in an appropriately radiant production from the Philadelphia Theatre Company.
Reimagined by composer/lyricist Adam Guettel and librettist Craig Lucas from a novella by Elizabeth Spencer, the story focuses on Margaret’s (the marvelous Sherri L. Edelen) trip to Florence with her daughter Clara (Whitney Bashor). The vacation recreates Margaret’s honeymoon with her hubby Roy (Joe Guzman), but it’s Clara who finds love in what she calls “the land of naked marble boys.”
Clara’s own personal David (Michelangelo’s statue figures prominently) comes in the form of a handsome Florentine named Fabrizio (an excellent Matthew Scott). Their whirlwind courtship proceeds under the watchful and disapproving eye of Margaret who wants the pair to move “slowly,” which is exactly the way the first act proceeds under the careful pacing of director Joe Calarco.
Unlike most musicals, Piazza ’s plot doesn’t move swiftly. Instead it slowly unfolds like a flower in the first days of spring, and in Act 2 Calarco’s patient approach pays dividends.
As a romance, the musical is certainly about love, but mostly it’s about the risk of chasing your dream. “Risk is everything,” sings Fabrizio’s mother Signora (Maureen Torsney-Weir). Of course, risk doesn’t always bring rewards. “No one with a dream should come to Italy,” says Margaret. An intoxicating place of impossible beauty (captured magnificently in R. Lee Kennedy’s atmospheric lighting design) Italy inspires even the most careful individuals to risk everything in the name of love.
Alas, even in Italy there is no such thing as a perfect love, and Piazza is not your typical musical where fairy tale romances are commonplace. In Guettel’s captivating score and Lucas’ lively book, love is not only imperfect, it’s fraught with emotional peril.
For Margaret and her husband Roy (who skips Italy in favor of work) the honeymoon is long over. As she tours the museums and attempts to micromanage their daughter, it’s clear that any love Margaret and Roy had for each other is as ancient as the sites in this history-rich country. The only thing they now share is a desire to keep their emotionally (and perhaps mentally) fragile daughter safe from harm.
An aching romance that envelops us in its swooning score, Piazza resists the formulaic happily-ever-after conclusion. As this singular musical comes to a close life is just beginning for Fabrizio and Clara, and it’s apparent a host of challenges await them. In the end love is worth the risk, but it’s neither easy nor necessarily eternal. ■
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