Starring: - Victoria Clark
- Adam Guettel
- Craig Lucas
Description:
Going into the family business was not what the grandson of songwriting icon Richard Rodgers originally had in mind, but composer/lyricist Adam Guettel rose to the occasion while grabbing the ring at his own steady pace. His musical THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA tells the touching love story of an American tourist and an Italian countryman in post-WWII Firenze. Guettel's unabashed romanticism includes soaring, long-lined melodies, rich and deep harmonic language not far from the land of Sondheim, and lush orchestrations. The refreshing, wide-eyed naivete felt by the young Clara is aptly translated in her solo "The Beauty Is," while Fabrizio's charming awkwardness with English (and with courting a beautiful stranger) is winningly expressed in their duet "Passeggiata. " The exciting rhythms of "Hysteria" and "Octet" recall Stravinsky's neo-classical language. The story's tragic secret is achingly revealed by Clara's mother in "The Beauty Is (Reprise)." All the proceedings are supported by a superior cast including Victoria Clark (URINETOWN, TITANIC), Kelli O'Hara (DRACULA, JEKYLL & HYDE) and Matthew Morrison (HAIRSPRAY, FOOTLOOSE). The future of musical theater may look murky to some. But Guettel's sure-handed amalgam of styles has a voice of his own, one that can point the way.
1. Overture
2. Statues And Stories
3. Beauty Is, The
4. Il Mondo Era Vuoto
5. American Dancing
6. Passeggiata
7. Joy You Feel, The
8. Dividing Day
9. Hysteria
10. Say It Somehow
11. Aiutami
12. Light in the Piazza, The
13. Octet
14. Beauty Is, The (Reprise)
15. Let's Walk
16. Clara's Interlude
17. Love To Me
18. Fable
Light In The Piazza
