Anna Mintzer (photo by Berrie Tsang)
Reviewed by F. Kathleen Foley
Sierra Madre Playhouse
Through Oct. 8
America’s female suffrage movement dates back to 1848’s first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. That watershed event fired the imaginations and wills of a small but growing cadre of dedicated American women who were determined to gain a measure of control over their children, their property, and their bodies by way of the ballot box. Some seventy years later, their efforts resulted in 1920’s 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote.
Spearheading that long and weary journey to enfranchisement were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, titans of that early movement. Longtime friends and allies in a common cause, the two courageously flouted the mores of their day, facing vilification and ridicule throughout their struggle. Nevertheless, they persisted, laying the groundwork for the freedoms that American women enjoy today — regrettably embattled privileges that too many now take for granted.
Neither Stanton nor Anthony would live to see the culmination of their efforts, but their story has inspired The Right Is Ours!, a world premiere musical at the Sierra Madre Playhouse that features a book by Lloyd J. Schwartz, who also directs, and music and lyrics by Adryan Russ.
Schwartz has previously dabbled in autobiographical drama, co-writing a play about John Wilkes Booth and authoring another about famed abolitionist and Civil War surgeon Dr. Mary Walker — both solo shows seen last year at the Playhouse. Here, portions of the book are taken directly from Stanton and Anthony’s actual speeches and writings. As a primer on the early suffrage movement, the play holds considerable interest. However, as a disciplined and cohesive work of theater, it falls short. A pall of amateurism overhangs the production itself (which is puzzling, as so many involved have solid and extensive professional credits), while the merits of Russ’s intermittently pleasant music are undercut in this otherwise unimaginatively chronological effort.
Three Suffragists — Paige Berkovitz, Carlin Castellano and Jacquelin Lorraine Schofield — perform the first number, Seneca Falls. Game performers all, they are lumbered by Kay Cole’s galumphing choreography — again, a puzzlement, as Cole is a typically assured professional whose theatrical credits, as both a choreographer and performer, stem back decades.
The aura of unprofessionalism is compounded by Vicki Conrad’s anachronistic and makeshift costumes, which, apart from a couple of rental-worthy ensembles, look as if they were assembled directly from a Ross Dress For Less bargain bin.
A bare stage, embellished by Rick Simone’s rear projections, forms the extent of Gregory Crafts’ “set design,” while technical glitches made it difficult to assess Crafts’ lighting, which seemed notably flat.
Gregory Nabours and Thomas Griep have better luck with their musical direction, but then they have a lot to work with. The performers, led by the personable Emily Abeles and Anna Mintzer, who play Stanton and Anthony respectively, have lovely voices. Yet they are thoroughbreds stuck at the gate of Schwartz’s clunky direction, which frequently disregards the audience’s sightlines and too often leaves the actors uncomfortably frozen as they await their next order of business.
Near play’s end, the elderly Stanton enters in hair and makeup designer Dylan Pass’s fluffy white wig — a towering concoction that looks as if Stanton had gotten her head stuck in a malfunctioning cotton candy machine. It’s an unfortunately memorable image for this enterprise, which does poor service to its monumental subjects, who surely deserved better.
Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. thru Oct. 8. (626) 355-4318. http://sierramadreplayhouse.org Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.
