“Fie on goodness, fie!”
That cynical assertion drives one of lyricist of Alan Jay Lerner’s secondary songs in “Camelot” Perhaps he would change his tune if he could see the extreme goodness in a new revival at Laguna Playhouse, a production on a smaller, but still strong scale.
Highly enjoyable performances in the leads, a robust male chorus and the shimmering Frederick Loewe score, still beguiling in an orchestration for seven instruments, offset Lerner’s sourpuss story of young love and lofty ideals compromised over time by human foible and rot.
Long classified as a problematic epic, “Camelot” received a wonky, misguided rewrite from Aaron Sorkin, a Broadway flop last year. Encountering the story here makes you think that the earlier versions weren’t so bad after all.
Ultimately, the only downside walking out of Laguna Playhouse: Just try to shed those shimmering earworms Loewe artfully places, show-tune glories determined to rattle around your brain, notably the title track, “What Do the Simple Folk Do?” and “If Ever I Would Leave You.”
Director Jeffrey B. Moss brings a veteran eye to shaping the proceedings. The show balances the engaging songs with storytelling that efficiently relates but isn’t deadened by the downward course of the events.
Note, particularly, what Moss and his entire company do wonderfully with singing as well as mimed performance in “The Jousts.”
Actor Jered McLenigan’s King Arthur is admirably thought out and thoroughly involving as time and events proceed.
His engaging acting gives the show its essential centerpiece: the line readings and physicality are consistently crisp and specific. One buys in, too, with McLenigan as first the agreeably addled boy who would be king, all the way to the sympathetic, emotionally spent monarch whose final hope is for a legacy of “well, at least we tried” will be remembered.
Lauren Weinberg is a sparkly, suitably self-involved Guenevere, engaging with a sharp-as-a-tack presence.
Her rendition with Lancelot of “I Loved You Once In Silence” is impactful, but, my goodness, the rendition of “The Lusty Month of May,” with an aggressively flirty Weinberg surrounded by a quintet of eager knights, certainly amps the adjective in that song title.
The love triangle of “Camelot” traditionally sees a dreamboat, capped-teeth Lancelot of the Robert Goulet-Franco Nero school. Brian Krinsky has the stature and actorly conviction to be the purist knight in Christendom, but a rough French accent that occasionally blinks on and off and bristly facial hair may take getting used to among some theatergoers of a certain age.
This version of “Camelot” gets — and enjoys — a boys club treatment, Guenevere the only candidate on stage who could be picked to sing “The Simple Joys of Maidenhood.” The harmony male singing is big and strong across the board, particularly from the central trio in the corps, Jacob Caltrider, Elias Wygodny and Scott Hurst, Jr.
Joining them late in the show is Jason Heil, who earlier does double-duty as a time-addled Merlyn. The chorus is also aided in the second act by a suitably scoundrely Mordred, Nick Apostolina, who has a rich voice in his sneery soloing of “The Seven Deadly Virtues.”
Elisa Benzoni’s period costuming is welcoming; note at the outset the lovely, draped gown Guenevere arrives in. As is standard for Laguna productions of late, Marty Burnett’s scenic design, while static here, is more than just serviceable and Matt Novotny’s lighting is turning into something worth waiting to see in show after show.
Out of sight, playing the well-tailored orchestration by Steve Orich for this small-scale production, music director and pianist Daniel Lincoln and an able band of four deliver the score at a satisfying level.
All of the music and singing receive an able assist for clarity from sound engineer Ian Scot.
Midsummer night’s theatergoing in OC is unexpectedly dreamy right now with this compelling “Camelot” in Laguna while in Anaheim, Chance Theater’s “Sweeney Todd” offers an equally engrossing small-scale version of the Sondheim warhorse.
But beware and be advised: the wealth of riches in these two superb productions ends Sunday, Aug. 11.
So, fie on short runs, fie! Get a move on to see catch both.
‘Camelot’
Rating: 3 1/2 stars (from a possible 4)
Where: Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach
When: Through Aug. 11. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Fridays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 5:30 p.m. Sundays. There will be an additional performance on Tuesday, Aug. 6 at 7:30 p.m. There will be no performance on Sunday, Aug. 11 at 5:30 p.m.
Tickets: $55-94
Information: 949-497-2787; lagunaplayhouse.com
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