The Philadelphia Inquirer Howard Shapiro Column

By Howard Shapiro, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Jul. 22–The only thing more outstanding than the ungainly nose on the title character in Cyrano de Bergerac is the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival’s impressive production itself.

The festival’s final offering this summer, Edmund Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, is gorgeous in many ways: its melodic translation by Anthony Burgess, the one used on Broadway last season in a production with Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner; an inspired portrait of a renegade with a broken heart of gold by Philadelphia actor Greg Wood; a staging by director Dennis Razze that embraces the play’s most emotional scenes, then milks them for all they’re worth.

It’s a more heartfelt Cyrano than its Broadway counterpart, which emphasized the verse in Burgess’ script — and if the festival production has a downside, it’s that, in its determination to deliver the play as everyday speech, this version loses some of the script’s classy nuance. You never get the charm that comes with pairing ointment and appointment in the dialogue, for instance; it’s all but lost in the delivery. But you do get a Cyrano who sounds like today.

This story of a man whose large nose is the attribute that overshadows his many virtues — most notably, his poetic way with words — unfolds on handsome sets by Will Neuert, lit with precision by Steve TenEyck. One of its key scenes plays out against a huge moon set into a backdrop of stars that perfectly compliments the action, as Cyrano gives a soldier in his regiment (played with true lovesick longing by Spencer Plachy) the words to charm Roxane, listening on a balcony above — Roxane, Cyrano’s cousin and the object of his love as well, though she doesn’t know it.

Allison McLemore makes a sweet and innocent Roxane, and easily skirts the character’s superficiality. While she is mad about Christian, the soldier who has no words to offer other than those Cyrano supplies, she’s also mad about words, and can’t love a guy unless paragraphs of passion fall from his lips. McLemore is perfect in both her stage allure and her silly affection for, as she says, "little things so beautiful that are nothing and yet everything."

As the hidden supplier of these little things, Greg Wood makes Cyrano a triple threat: Wood nakedly displays everything about his Cyrano’s psyche, mixing self-confidence, self-loathing, and a heavy portion of selflessness to create three Cyranos we understand all at once. The director’s staging clearly helps him; at one point, when Roxane declares her love for Christian to a Cyrano who believes she’s come to attest her love for himself, Razze has both characters facing the audience. He appears hit by a truck she happily drives. The effect is blistering.

Others stand out: John Ahlin in a genuine portrayal as Cyrano’s best bud, the versatile Carl N. Wallnau as his worst enemy. Mix in swordmaster Rick Sordelet’s fight direction, whose rewards come early in the play, and you’ve got a Cyrano de Bergerac with the sizzle and soul it deserves.

Contact staff writer Howard Shapiro at 215-854-5727 or hshapiro@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/howardshapiro.

—–

To see more of The Philadelphia Inquirer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.philly.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.