Classic Musical Tale of Love and Loss Retains Sparks of Wonder and Hope
By SHARON EBERSON
There’s no getting around the resonance of Pittsburgh CLO launching its 79th season with the poignant, cautionary tale of the downfall of an idealistic king, within days of #NoKings protests throughout the United States.
That wasn’t part of the plan, of course. There’s always good reason to rekindle the magic in the many-layered Camelot, the 1960 musical that is forever tied to the short and momentous Kennedy presidency. However, in 2025, any retelling of the Arthurian legend can’t help but land with recent events still fresh in our minds.
The show at the Benedum Center this week is a wonderful night out for lovers of classic musical theater, while also reminding us that a story that dates back centuries can still deliver a punch.
There’s humor and passion amid rapturous love songs, spirited dances, forbidden love, and ideals realized and lost, in the Camelot that marks executive producer Mark Fleischer’s directorial debut for Pittsburgh CLO.
Led by Adam Kantor’s warmth and charm as Arthur, a luminous Kyla Stone as Guenevere, the earnestness of Ben Jacoby’s Lancelot and Alexander Podolinski’s prancing, scheming Mordred (villains do have all the fun), PCLO’s Camelot is a straightforward retelling of a flawed classic, with talent to spare. There’s no need to embellish or modernize what Lerner and Loewe have wrought, as Aaron Sorkin tried to do in an ill-fated 2023 revival.
It helps that swoon-worthy songs such as If Ever I Would Leave You and I Loved You Once in Silence and the heartfelt title song are delivered with passion. There’s also fun to be had with Lerner’s winking, witty lyrics, in songs such as C’est Moi, The Lusty Month of May and Mordred’s delightfully demonic The Seven Deadly Sins and Fie on Goodness.
I didn’t miss the dropping of the song Then You May Take Me to the Fair – it is clear enough that the Queen is not fond of Lancelot. Theirs is the original trope of hate at first sight that turns to …
If you don’t know the Arthurian legend, where have you been? It opens with the young Arthur, always questioning, insecure and yearning to be a leader beyond the kid who pulled a sword from a stone. Enter Stone as Jenny, and he finally has his muse.
Kantor excels here, while other Arthurs I have seen, and there have been many, struggle with the king’s growth from youthful innocence to wisdom and strength. You believe he could become beloved among his knights and subjects.
But a blow to Arthur’s ideals is coming, and it’s a doozy. How he handles it will define his monarchy. It is here that both Kantor and the production shine – the speech at the end of Act 1, declaring that holding fast for his kingdom’s sake outweighs personal betrayals.
In the novel, the musical and the movie, when done well, this moment can be as resonant as “The to be or not to be” inner monologue in Hamlet.
With all the weight it deserves, Kantor’s Arthur opts for holding together his kingdom over personal vengeance.
“This is the time of King Arthur, when violence is not strength and compassion is not weakness,” he proclaims.
Arthur doesn’t know there’s more trouble to come, which makes the moment all the more poignant.
Like Kantor, Jacoby is a welcome newcomer to PCLO. He possesses the deep baritone and earnestness – he has toured as Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera – required of the relentlessly brooding Lancelot. The actor broke the saintly knight’s spell only once, flashing a winking grin during C’est Moi – Lance’s delightfully pretentious declaration of superiority.
Stone, who played Cinderella in PCLO’s Into the Woods, has a soprano of enormous range and expression that is perfectly suited to Jenny, as she struggles to hide her instincts for girlish mischief and her feelings for Lancelot.
The saintly Lance can be a downer, at first comically so, and then relentlessly so. He is the counterpoint to Kantor’s buoyant optimism as Arthur and Jenny’s glowing passion, until Mordred drops in as the third spoke in the wheel.
Arthur’s bastard son is evil and ambitious to the core, delighting in mischief and mayhem he brings to a court where there is no heir; Jenny’s barrenness is glossed over in the musical.
of the Round Table in Pittsburgh CLO’s Camelot. (Image: Matt Pollk)
Podolinski plays Mordred to the hilt, bringing a jolt of energy to the second act, as he riles up his father’s knights to mutiny.
As both Merlyn, the mentor of Arthur’s youth, and the doddering but loyal King Pelinore, John L. Grimsley blithely mumbles through an impossibly heavy mustache and beard. However, Grimsley has another task, as the handler of Pelinore’s companion Horrid, a shaggy dog (real name Gus) that brings out the appropriate “aws” and takes a bit of edge off the unfolding tragedy.
Among the lively ensemble of knights and ladies were many familiar faces, including Allan M. Snyder, Ryan Cavanaugh, Donovan Elliot Smith and Michael Greer, along with recent Gene Kelly Award winners Kai Sachon and Kylie Edwards.
A good portion of Act 1 is taken up by introductions to key characters and themes, so that there are often one or two performers onstage at a time. With choreography by Mara Newberry Greer, The Lusty Month of May gets everyone into the act in a rousing number that showcases the ensembles’ dancing skills.
Andrea Weinzierl adds a second-act spark as Mordred’s partner in crime, Morgan Le Fey, helping to set in motion the downfall of Camelot.
The scenic and video design by Bryce Cutler (Carnegie Mellon alum, Grand Horizons on Broadway) are at times evocative, at times lush, with particular nod to greenery banners and a unicorn tapestry.
The key jousting scene, when Lancelot and Guenevere first realize their attraction, is accomplished with a combination of video design and ensemble reverie that brought to mind another Lerner and Loewe musical – the racing scene in My Fair Lady.
The 23-piece Pittsburgh CLO Orchestra, led by Robert Neumeyer, adds mightily to the lushness of a production that, as is always the case with this company, had mere days to prepare with its principal actors, all first-timers to Camelot.
I am among the perhaps jaded audience members, who know the original cast album by heart and have seen more professional productions than I can count on one hand. Yet, experiencing Camelot in 2025, is seeing it anew.
While entertaining with standards sung with nuance, skill and gusto, the Pittsburgh CLO production illuminates the other reason for Camelot’s ongoing popularity (it has been revived on Broadway four times; by PCLO, seven):
Despite the tragedy that befalls the legendary king and his ideals for a just and peaceful kingdom, we are left with a spark of hope, for whatever times we are living in.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Pittsburgh CLO’s production of Camelot is at the Benedum Center, Downtown, through June 22, 2025. https://www.pittsburghclo.org/shows/camelot.
Notable: In pre-show remarks, Fleischer bid farewell to Christopher Evans, who has retired after 37 years as the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust‘s house sound designer at the Benedum Center. He is succeeded by Sarah Speck.
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Reviews
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