Director vaults more Voltaire into new adaptation of 'Candide'

Call "Candide" the Humpty Dumpty of American musical theater. Ever since this comic operetta originally flopped on Broadway back in 1956, so many amazing theater and opera talents have been trying to put "Candide" back together again.

And why not? The Leonard Bernstein score bursts forth with glorious tunes and it has acquired a litany of clever lyricists like Richard Wilbur, John LaTouche Dorothy Parker, Stephen Sondheim, Lillian Hellman and Bernstein himself. Plus, with the timelessly satirical source material of Voltaire's original novella, "Candide" can speak truth to power in any generation.

The latest theater great to put a distinctive stamp on "Candide" is Mary Zimmerman, the Chicago-based Tony Award-wining director and playwright who has wowed audiences locally and nationwide with her inventive takes on classic mythology like Ovid's "Metamorphoses" and Homer's "The Odyssey."

Instead of using existing "Candide" scripts from Hugh Wheeler for the 1974 Broadway revival or John Caird's 1998 revision for London's Royal National Theatre, Zimmerman received permission from Bernstein's estate to craft a new script for this shared production by Chicago's Goodman Theatre and the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.

The major departure in Zimmerman's script is to drop Wheeler's framing device of having Voltaire himself narrate the action. Zimmerman instead employs various members of her 19-member ensemble to act as narrators and multiple characters. Together, they advance Voltaire's fantastical tale of the ever-optimistic Candide (a very boyish and wide-eyed Geoff Packard) and his 18th century brushes with war, pillage, religious inquisitions, thievery and, oh yes, love for the highborn Cunegonde (a feisty and comically agile Lauren Molina, who wows with her high-flying coloratura soprano in the showstopping number "Glitter and be Gay").

Fans of the show will note Zimmerman's restrained use of jab-you-in-the-ribs vaudevillian humor that has dominated previous "Candide" stagings. Instead, she lingers much more on the original literary source material to illustrate Voltaire's controversial philosophical debates.

The end result is one that will no doubt enthrall literary scholars and fans of more intellectually introspective theater. But for audiences who just want unadulterated Broadway musical fun, Zimmerman's skilled effort to remake "Candide" in the contemplative style of her previous mythological stagings will probably divide and maybe even dissatisfy.

Still, her staging flourishes are very wowing, from her creative use of miniatures to depict all sorts of traveling devices to lavish (and satirical) period costumes by longtime designer and collaborator Mara Blumenfeld.

Since Zimmerman reinstates more Voltaire into the show, it's appropriate that set designer Daniel Ostling's dominant setting of a diagonal wood-paneled room feels like an old-school college study room (which ingeniously has panels slide open and pop out with scenic add-ons to illustrate this episodic romp).

The acting ensemble is solid, with especially fine comic work from Hollis Resnik as the seen-it-all and half-buttocked Old Lady, Larry Yando as the all-for-the-best syphilitic philosopher Dr. Pangloss and Erik Lochtefeld as Cunegonde's haughty and clearly gay brother Maximilian.

In the pit, things get off to an unfairly shaky start since music director Doug Peck only has a 12-member orchestra to execute Bernstein's effervescent score. Thus, the famed "Candide" overture sounds undernourished. Luckily, the rest of the score is played with much more assurance and verve.

So will Zimmerman's take on "Candide" stick, or will it be one of many attempts to make this crazy and complex operetta finally work? Only time will tell, but the Goodman's heady meeting of the minds featuring Voltaire, Bernstein and Zimmerman is definitely one that demands to be debated and seen.

"Candide"Rating: #9733; #9733; #9733;Location: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, (312) 443-3800, goodmantheatre.orgShowtimes: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday (no evening shows Oct. 17 and 31); 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Thursday (no matinees Oct. 2 or 21); through Oct. 31Running time: Nearly three hours with intermissionTickets: $25-$85Parking: Pay garagesRating: For teens or older (sexual situations and some graphic descriptions of war, social diseases and torture)False20001378The Old Lady (Hollis Resnik) helps Cunegonde (Lauren Molina) with her corset while she ponders her life as a high-priced Lisbon courtesan in the coloratura number "Glitter and be Gay." False