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by George Patterson
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

The Boys From Syracuse

Ty Tracy's 1998 Summer Youth Workshop Production for NORD Theatre this summer is the 1938 musical comedy hit, The Boys From Syracuse, a penultimate George Abbott adaptation of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors (which he took from Plautus and his Menaechmi) that is studded, like a jewel-encrusted bijou, with some of Rodgers and Hart's most famous songs: "What Can You Do With A Man?" "Falling In Love With Love," "This Can't Be Love," "You Took Advantage Of Me," and "Sing For Your Supper," to name a few.

Utilizing a cast of young people, varying in age from 6 to 19, Mr. Tracy, with the invaluable help from his collegues, music and vocal director Gloria C. Fallo, choreographer Leo Jones and costumer Bob Bruce, along with set and light designer Phil Wagar, has scored once again. Not only has he directed his callow charges with his usual brio, wherein every drop of humor from the orginial text is realized, he also has the temerity to shoe horn in even more visual eye candy with imcomparable funny business-this cast zings it to us with a savvy that belies their years and lack of experience. Simply amazing.

One of the original comedies of mistaken identity, the book for this musical is a plotter's delight. The story, briefly: Two "boys" from Syracuse, Greece, Antipholus (Roger Edgecombe) and his servant Dromio (Jason George), have journeyed to another Greek city, Ephesus, to find their long lost twins who are also named Antipholus and Dromio. Complications arise when the wives of the Ephesian Antipolus (Mark Weinberg) and the Ephesian Dromio (Jermain L. Keelen), Adriana (Katy Weatherly) and her servant Luce (Sarah Stickney), mistake the boys from Syracuse for their husbands. the couples eventually get sorted out after Adriana's sister Luciana (Nori Pritchard) and the Syracuse Antipholus admit their love while protesting "This Can't Be Love."

Ephesus, when this tale unfolds, is an earthy place with courtesans tempting the police force and the citizenry all excited over a public execution (of the father of the twins no less-played with a maddening, and hysterical, speech impediment by Nicky Roth). Thus, the sight of prepubescence clothed and made up to resemble worldly wantons places the ribald humor on yet another remove, making the satire have double meaning.

Others in the large cast who struck gold with their performances were Daniel Skora as the Duke of Ephesus, Bryan Wagar as the befuddled sorcerer, Nicholas Guidry as the Corporal of Police, Margaret Prat as Cathoula the Courtesan (who belts out the show's 11 o'clock number, "Oh, Diogenes,") and Jessica Marasco as the laid back, and very funny courtesan, Fatima.

These kids have graduated from their summer workshop with high honors. How many also suffered the bite of the showbiz bug only time will tell, but Mr. Tracy has once again unearthed theatrical ore, some of which will no doubt be entertaining New Orleans for years to come.

The New Season

Our local theatres are in the throes of mounting their first productions of the new season even as I type this. Both Le Petit, beginning a new season with a new artistic and management staff, and Rivertown Repertory Theatre will be opening with big, brassy musicals,circa 1930, Le Petit with 42nd Street, Rivertown Rep with Anything Goes. Southern Rep will be simple and frugal with yet another production of the reading that masquerades as a play, A. R. Gurney's Love Letters. The kicker is that all three theatres begin their seasons on the same night, Fri., Sept. 18.

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