Charming new Northlight musical has 'Legs'
The first thing one notices about David Farley's canny "Daddy Long Legs" set are the books filling the floor-to-ceiling shelves. The steamer trunks are the second.
The books represent knowledge. The trunks represent travel. Together they illustrate the power of an education to transform an individual: to set her on a course to a new life.
That message underscores the disarming new chamber musical by writer-director John Caird (the Tony Award winning director of "Les Miserables") and composer-lyricist Paul Gordon ("Jane Eyre"), which opened recently at Skokie's Northlight Theatre.
"Daddy Long Legs" combines a coming-of-age tale with a romance between a pair of unlikely soul mates. But at its core, this show is an homage to erudition.
"Daddy Long Legs" is inspired by Jean Webster's oft-adapted 1912 novel about a young woman plucked from an orphanage and given a college education by an anonymous benefactor. The play chronicles in epistolary fashion the evolution of Jerusha Abbott, a teenage orphan with a quick and eager mind, enchantingly played by Megan McGinnis, a superb singer/actress on whose slender but very able shoulders much of the show's success rests.
Her patron whom she imagines as an elderly man she dubs Daddy Long Legs asks for nothing in exchange except regular letters about her progress. The letters intrigue "Daddy," who is actually a privileged, social awkward, thirtysomething bachelor named Jervis Pendleton. Jervis (played with restless charm by Robert Adelman Hancock) finds himself falling in love with the spirited, intellectually curious and increasingly independent young woman. He arranges to meet her and they become friends without Jervis ever revealing that he pays her tuition. Meanwhile, Jerusha writes "Daddy" about the man she has met which (to his credit) prompts Jervis to ponder whether he's "fostering her education or reading someone else's mail."
The musical never really addresses Jervis' betrayal or the inequality and sense of obligation that underpins their relationship. And I don't suppose the show would benefit from an analysis of the Freudian implications of Jerusha unwittingly falling for the man she calls "Daddy." The first act could use some paring down, and a couple of second act numbers stray into "show tune" territory that doesn't suit the refined, understated score.
But those are minor points. "Daddy Long Legs" is a moving show with exquisite arrangements by Gordon and Brad Haak who make dissonance delightful.
Northlight's beautifully sung production marks yet another stop on this show's inaugural tour. It premiered last fall at the Rubicon Theatre Company in California and was subsequently remounted at California's TheatreWorks and at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park before coming to Skokie.
"Daddy Long Legs" richly deserves its growing exposure. Like its heroine, it is most assuredly on course.
<p class="factboxheadblack">"Daddy Long Legs" </p>
<p class="News">★ ★ ★ ½</p>
<p class="News"><b>Location:</b> Northlight Theatre, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie, (847) 673-6300 or northlight.org</p>
<p class="News"><b><b>Showtimes:</b></b> 1 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday through Oct. 24. Also 7:30 p.m. Oct. 19; 6 p.m. curtain on Oct. 3 and 24</p>
<p class="News"><b>Running time:</b> About two hours, 20 minutes with intermission</p>
<p class="News"><b>Tickets:</b> $45-$55 </p>
<p class="News"><b>Parking:</b> Lot adjacent to theater</p>
<p class="News"><b>Rating:</b> For most audiences</p>