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Miravel: Or The Promise Of Alphonso Bloch
Reviewed by Paul Birchall
Sacred Fools Theater
Through December 19
RECOMMENDED:
Playwright/composer Jake Broder, whose play Louie and Keely Live at the Sahara went from Sacred Fools to the Geffen and then to regional theaters such as Chicago’s Royal George, returns here once again with another musical motif – this time the world of jazz. His latest opus is a magical amalgam of jazz music and gentle tinged-with-regret romantic drama.
Broder’s play is a broad adaptation of Rostand’s “Cyrano de Bergerac,” albeit with so many liberties taken as to make the source work merely a launching point for a totally different story with the same general idea.
Broder plays Alphonse Bloch, a brilliant jazz composer and musician who suffers from painful shyness and is crippled from a childhood leg injury. While a student at a prestigious music conservatory, he becomes pals with handsome charismatic young crooner Henry Brooks (Will Bradley), a talented performer who nonetheless lacks the ability to create the truly inspiring music that he desires.
Into their world comes beautiful dance student Miravel (Devereau Chumrau) who, with her free-spirited attitude and love of creative people, quickly becomes muse to both men. The trouble is, Bloch is too shy to ever make the first move — and he also fears that a real world romance would destroy that mysterious alchemical ether that allows him to be truly talented.
Instead, when he realizes that Henry also loves the woman, he arranges to let him take credit for Bloch’s compositions, with the result that Miravel is soon head-over-heels with Henry. Tragedy results when Henry can’t keep the lie up, and Bloch himself is no longer able to hide his own talent behind others.
The plot is nicely interspersed with delightful jazz numbers, performed by the ensemble and a full band whose members include saxophonist Colin Kupka and bass-player Michael Alvidrez. It’s actually the musical accompaniment and the interludes that elevate the piece beyond what might have been a rather prosaic romance.
Director Shaunessy Quinn’s staging has a sweet, dreamlike and unabashedly sentimental quality that’s quite evocative. Also impressive is how the comparatively tiny Sacred Fools venue is turned into a smoky intimate jazz club, replete with Kupka’s saxophone warblings during the preshow.
The chemistry of the three performers is delightful – though, oddly enough, it’s the complex brotherly relationship between Broder’s introverted Bloch and Bradley’s flamboyantly Frank Sinatra-esque Henry that is at the show’s core.
At first, we’re troubled by Broder’s casting as Bloch: He’s older by far than the other performers, and it’s hard to see him as vulnerable and damaged when he’s clearly so much more seasoned than they are. As the story unfolds though, his assured musicality — and the fact that all the characters age — grounds the character more effectively.
Bradley offers a fascinating descent into madness as the handsome but increasingly frustrated “meat machine,” able to perform but not create. However, it is Chumrau’s lovely Miravel who bears the brunt of the show’s heavy lifting: She must be convincing as a believably modern (well, 1980s era) gal and as the sort of timeless spirit who might conceivably serve as muse to these two jazzy artists. With a turn that’s sprightly and a little ironic, Chumrau offers a really appealing and thoughtful performance of surprising maturity and subtlety. Her character is someone who clearly wants to be taken seriously as a modern woman — but there’s also an aspect to her character that demands courtship, wooing and flirtation.
The jazz music is delightful – Paul Litteral is the music director, but most of the score is by Broder. It will certainly help if you enjoy jazz, but even with only a layman’s interest in the musical form, this is still a charming and powerful romance.
Sacred Fools Theater, 660 N. Heliotrope, Hlywd.; Fri-Sat., 8:00 p.m.; through December 19. www.sacredfools.org or (310) 281-8337. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes with intermission.
