Its model were novels by Charles Dickens, but without his charm, characters and plots. The theater adaptation by Helen Edmundson, is a takeoff on “Nicholas Nickleby,” mercifully without the length.
The potboiler plot is leavened with plenty of musical riffs echoing the work of George Frideric Handel, the hit composer of his day, circa 1742, when his “Messiah” debuted (more of that later.)
Add winged creatures, a Madonna-like figure, puppets dangling from the ceiling, poorly fitted wigs, scores of enthusiastic young singers who miss the high registers, several choirs in procession at the same time and the small stage of the Highmark becomes overcrowded to distraction.
There are 25 characters in the play (give or take a few), with several actors doubling in roles, so confusion is understandable. Cousins explains in the program that Coram Boy is “performed in an unapologetic, melodramatic style”, perhaps justifying the mugging, overacting and arm-waving by the hardworking young cast. The English accents lack authenticity, with occasional lapses into an Irish brogue to add to the confusion.
The play itself lacks an overarching theme, except to yet again decry cruelty, greed, class division and bad taste. If its purpose is entertainment, pure and simple, at times it succeeds vividly, even if it has to throw in a few familiar choruses from “Messiah” with the Handel character conducting, to emphasize yet again the need for moral uplift.
With its gender-blind casting, Cousin’s Coram Boy production demands a lot of its student actors, many of whom play a variety of roles, particularly Mike Mekus as two very different and complex villains.
Point Park University threw its considerable theatrical resources into this massive production which feels like it was wedged into the confines of one of its smaller new theaters. The staging requires the audience seats to jammed too close together for comfort in this two-plus hour production.
Music director Douglas Levine work with Coram Boy’s pastiche of classical music, and bawdy sailor songs is a high point of the production along with the designs of costumer Karen Gilmer which bring color to an otherwise bland set by Britton Maulk.
See Coram Boy at your own risk. While its origins are from an award-winning children’s book this is definitely adult material that ranges from sex-trafficking, and misogyny to infanticide. Definitely not suited for younger theatergoers. Its cast has the energy and youth to perform its breathless pace without tiring, but could that be said of the audience as well?
Coram Boy runs at the new Pittsburgh Playhouse through December 2. For tickets and more information click here.
Bob Hoover retired from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as its full-time book editor and drama editor in 2011 after 28 years with the newspaper. He continued to write part-time for the PG reviewing books, theater, and articles on literary, historical and local topics until 2014. Hoover has reviewed myriad entertainment productions from the circus to children’s theater in Pittsburgh, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Canada. As a book editor, he reviewed an average of 50 books a year, wrote regular columns on the local and national literary scene and organized and edited the newspaper’s weekly book section. He provided extensive coverage of Pittsburgh’s literary community as well as reporting on events, readings, and festivals around the country. Hoover was a theater journalism fellow at the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California and the winner of state and local writing awards.
Categories: Archived Reviews