“I’m excited for the public to see it,” Mojica says, “because it’s not a show that a lot of people get to see.”
Indeed, because like “Little Women,” which concluded its run last weekend in Manhattan Beach, “The Light in the Piazza” dates back only a few years. Based on the 1960 novella by Elizabeth Spencer, which is set in Florence and Rome in 1953, the show features the music and lyrics of Adam Guettel, with a book by Craig Lucas. It opened on Broadway on April 18, 2005 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre and ran for 504 performances, closing on July 2, 2006. Critics liked what they saw, and “The Light in the Piazza” received a number of Tony Awards and Drama Desk Awards. Locally, the show played for a few weeks at the Ahmanson Theatre, and two years ago there was a production in Covina.
That seems to be it, regionally speaking. So when Dan Mojica tells me that a lot of people don’t know the show, he’s probably right.
The musical has its complexities, and we’ll get to those in a moment, but as Mojica points out “it’s really a very simple love story about two people coming together.” It begins with a well-to-do and seemingly over-protective mother, Margaret Johnson (Mary Gordon Murray), who has taken her 20-something-year-old daughter, Clara (Michaelia Leigh), from their home in Winston-Salem, NC, to Florence, Italy, for a summer vacation. It doesn’t take long until Clara meets a young Italian man, Fabrizio (Anthony Carillo), who is reminiscent of the postman Mario in LA Opera’s recent “Il Postino,” composed by the lately deceased and already sorely missed Daniel Catán.
As Mojica says, “The Light in the Piazza” is a simple and yet emotionally engaging, beautiful love story.
Challenges, lying in wait
Don’t be intimidated by this, but parts of the musical are spoken in and also sung in Italian. In almost every case it quickly becomes apparent what is being said. Actually, the real onus isn’t on the audience, it was on the principals who had to learn their lines and voice them convincingly.
Even more challenging: the score.
“A lot of it is somewhat like a light opera,” Mojica says. “A lot of the show is sung through, with [operatic] voices as opposed to a standard musical theater voice.
“Also, the way it’s written,” he adds. “It’s not a show written in 4/4; the rhythms are everywhere, the meter is everywhere. We go from a 5/8 meter to a 3/4 meter to a 2/4… They’re not standard songs as of yet because it’s still a fairly new show. That is also a challenge in its own right for the actors, because it’s not like a song from “Les Miz” or something, which you’ve heard over and over, which is very square cut and you can follow it very easily and you can hum along.
“A lot of these songs are not hummable tunes. There are a few in there that are quite beautiful,” and Mojica mentions “The Beauty Is,” which Clara sings early on. “That’s a little more standard in nature, but some of the arias, some of the songs where the dramatic comes out of the song, it’s all over the map.”
Here’s hoping that musical director Justin Gray gets extra credit for his endeavors.
The ears, now the eyes
Although a musical production can get away with minimal sets if the acting and singing are well executed (think of the Reprise series at UCLA), most of us like a little splash for our cash. Regarding the CLOSBC’s production of “The Light in the Piazza,” Mojica assures us that we won’t be disappointed.
“We’re doing it with a 16-piece orchestra, we’re doing it with a huge set, and full costumes. So we’re not scrimping and it’s not a small production by any means.”
The set was designed from scratch by Christopher Beyries, who’s done many other shows for the company.
“Based on our initial discussions and my concepts,” Mojica says, “he designed a set that serves the show very well, and it’s huge in scope. A lot of theaters don’t get the opportunity to do big sets. Now, the concept of the show is that there’s no four walls, ever, because you’re constantly going from place to place.”
Three “monument-type units,” in his words, are moved about the stage, “and then set pieces will fly in and around them. It allows me a lot of flexibility to be able to, in less than a minute, go from one place to the next without too much trouble.”
All of this was worked out, where possible, before the actors came on board. After both of them had read the script, Beyries then asked Mojica what his concept was. And Mojica, or so it seems from our conversation, would bring out his scratch paper and share his ideas.
“Chris gave me this little model of the set so that I could prep myself, to figure out how in a set this big [the story is] going to play around the actors and how the actors are going to play around the set.
“That was done prior to us ever starting rehearsals,” Mojica continues, “and that allowed us to [determine] where we were going. We’re in tech now, so I’m finding, ‘Oh, that doesn’t look good; let’s move this over here.’” Same thing, he notes, with adjusting or integrating the actors into the actual set. “There’s a lot of columns, a lot of arches to go through, which we didn’t have in rehearsal; all we had is the tape on the floor to position them.
“I’m very excited about the set,” Mojica says. “It’s sort of how I saw it in my head, and Chris has brought it to life physically.” And then, the magic almost complete, “we throw lighting on top of that to bring it to life even more so.”
Singers and performers, an orchestra, and a well-lit set. Now I think we’re ready for a show.
The Light in the Piazza is in previews tonight and tomorrow, with Opening Night set for Saturday, in the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo Beach. Performances, Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday evenings at 7 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Tickets, $30 to $65. Closes Sunday, May 8. Call (310) 372-4477 or go to civiclightopera.com. ER
