A budding romance

Megan McGinnis and Robert Adelman Hancock in Daddy Long Legs (Photo: Tim Fuller/Arizona Theatre Company)

Jerusha Abbott (Megan McGinnis), the oldest orphan in the John Grier Home, learns one day that she’s been chosen by a generous benefactor to receive full college tuition with room and board. But there’s a catch. Nine of them, actually — all recounted in the benefactor’s sole letter to Abbott.

She’s delighted to escape the orphanage, but puzzled by college life and fellow students whose experiences with family, friends and privilege she’s never shared. Still, she honors her benefactor’s request to write once a month — often writing more often as she has anecdotes or questions to share.

Megan McGinnis in Daddy Long Legs (Photo: Tim Fuller/Arizona Theatre Company)

Abbott knows only that her benefactor is lanky and tall, having seen him leaving the orphanage the day word came of his generosity. And so she dubs him “Daddy Long Legs,” assuming he’s terrribly old and boldly asking in her letters whether he’s got black hair, grey hair or no hair at all.

But her benefactor, Jervis Pendleton (Robert Adelman Hancock), is young and rather handsome. Also bookish and a bit of a loner. As Pendelton reads Abbott’s letters, which he’s sworn never to answer, he comes to admire her curiosity, innocence and wit. Once they meet, under false pretenses, his admiration turns to adoration. It’s something he can’t share, for reasons revealed during the course of the play.

“Daddy Long Legs” features book by John Caird, who also directs the work. Prior directing credits have earned Caird both Tony and Olivier Awards. The musical features music and lyrics by Paul Gordon, whose music and lyrics for “Jane Eyre” earned a Tony Award nomination.

The writing is well-paced and humorous, the music sentimental and sweet. Together they convey the evolving and sometimes conflicted emotions of Abbott and Pendleton. Both McGinnis and Hancock originated their roles at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura, California.  

The only weakness in Sunday night’s performance at the Herberger Theater Center was the sometimes nasal quality of Hancock’s vocal performance — but it’s easily overlooked with the exceptional quality of all those high notes. Abbott’s vocals were clear and melodic, the perfect embodiment of the character’s wonderment at the world around her.

Megan McGinnis and Robert Adelman Hancock in Daddy Long Legs (Photo: Tim Fuller/Arizona Theatre Company)

Although “Daddy Long Legs” is a tale of self-discovery and budding romance, it also explores some weightier themes — the role of women in society, the limitations of charity by checkwriting, the nature of God and the lure of socialism. Apparently all were on the mind of Jean Webster, the novelist whose work inspired the musical.

“Daddy Long Legs” is set in New England during the early part of the 20th century. Its simple but dramatic set consists of a darkly-paneled library filled with book-laden shelves, plus desk, lamp and chair — and an assortment of trunks that morph into everything from bed to mountaintop.

A teen who sat next to me at the performance toyed every once and a while with her cell phone — failing, I suspect, to recognize how opportunities for women have evolved since Webster penned her novel in 1912. There’s a comprehensive study guide on the Arizona Theatre Company website that does a magnificent job of making clear just how far we’ve come, and how we got here.

In the end, I was struck be something far simpler — Abbott’s realization that the bravery needed to face the everyday exceeds the courage called for in times of crisis.

— Lynn 

Note: Arizona Theatre Company presents the Arizona premiere of “Daddy Long Legs” through Jan. 15. Click here for show and ticket information, and here to read the play guide.

Coming up: Reflections on 1,000 posts

A sad day for sheet music

The last time I took to the movie theater to attempt a glimpse into the life of Wolfgang Mozart, it was 1984 — and the movie “Amadeus” was all the rage. It imagines Mozart’s life and music via flashbacks from the supposedly insanely jealous Antonio Salierie, another prolific composer during the late 18th century.

Friday morning I headed to Harkins Camelview 5 in Scottsdale to enjoy a René Féret film called “Mozart’s Sister,” a fictional account (in French, with English subtitles) of Mozart’s very real, very talented big sister. Also his rather odd but quite likeable mother — and his harsh, ambitious father. There’s enough material for a movie imagining the inner lives of each.

Best to have started with the sister, I suppose, because Maria Anna Mozart (called Nannerl) seems to have made the greatest sacrifices for her brother’s art. Parents, in this case Leopold and Anna Maria, are expected to do such things. But only siblings of very special children, whether they be especially gifted or especially challenging (or both), know the sacrifices of their own longings that living in such a family necessitates.

Nannerl’s case is more intriguing than most because she seems to choose, long after she’s free to escape the shadow of her brother, to remain there — steadfastly, and without wavering. Perhaps she longed to be like the mother she at once admired and somehow secretly disdained. Perhaps she decided the work of breaking free was too great for the modesty of the reward in a day and age when women didn’t have a world of options.

Wolfgang (David Moreau) and Nannerl (Marie Feret) Mozart in "Mozart's Sister"

What historians have long confirmed becomes clear quite early in the film. Nannerl is at least as gifted, in composing and playing music, as her brother. Maybe more so. But their father forbids her to play the violin after a certain age, and refuses in the film to teach her the notation she desperately craves as a way to write down the original music constantly streaming through her head.

“Mozart’s Sister” is a compelling exploration of what the transition from childhood to womanhood might have been like during the late 18th century –where women only learned about menstruation after finding that first red stain on a white nightgown, where shuttered girls found ways to read about forbidden subjects, where letters sealed with wax were sent by secret messenger to objects of one’s affection. No texting or tampons here, I’m afraid.

The movie feels a bit cursory in some ways, revealing little about individual characters and their motivations by virtue of wanting to give everyone equal time. It feels quite slow at some points, a plus perhaps for those seeking to figure out the inner lives of all those Mozarts and their many aquaintances.

Louise de France (Lisa Feret) and Nannerl Mozart (Marie Feret) in "Mozart's Sister"

I was most intrigued by depictions of women’s friendships at the time, no less hindered than they are today by assumptions about class and station in life. The adolescent women in “Mozart’s Sister” clearly crave more companionship (as well as family time) than they’re getting — and it’s fun to consider whether the reasons back then parallel those we see today.

Still, I’d have preferred a quicker-paced posing of these questions. If “Amadeus” left you drenched in the unsubtleties of Mozart’s braggadocious bufoonery, “Mozart’s Sister” will leave you finessing the finer points of why women sometimes sell themselves short amidst the glory given to others.

— Lynn

Note: You’ll have another opportunity to muse on such things as Arizona Theatre Company presents a stage adaptation of Jean Webster’s 1912 novel titled “Daddy Long Legs.” It’s the tale of an orphan sent to college by a rich benefactor in a day and age when women rarely considered their own talents or expected opportunities to use them.

Coming up: Ethnic studies — from classroom to stage

Seeing red

It’s starting to feel like a bit of a conspiracy theory. Now that my daughter Lizabeth is readying to leave Arizona for college, several of the shows she’s most eager to see have started popping up around the Valley.

We were “seeing red” recently when we realized she’ll be well into her freshman year (at a college yet to be decided) before the Arizona premiere of a play that won six 2010 Tony Awards — including “best play.”

The work is John Logan’s “Red” — which is based on the true story of an artist grappling with “the commission of a lifetime.” The play is described as “a searing portrait of an artist’s ambition and vulnerability.”

Apparently matters are complicated by a new assistant who questions the artist’s “views of art, creativity and commerce.” Their master/novice dialogue explores an age-old query: “Is art meant to provoke, soothe or disturb?”

“Red” is the final work in the recently unveiled Arizona Theatre Company 2011-2012 season, which opens with a world premiere titled “Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club.” It’s a Jeffrey Hatcher work based on “The Suicide Club” by Robert Louis Stevenson and characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle.

The 45th anniversary season slate for Arizona Theatre Company also features the Southwest premiere of Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage,” which won the 2009 Tony Award for “best play.” Picture grown-ups trying to be civilized as they discuss their children’s misadventures on a playground — only to unravel as “political correctness” dissolves into “character assasination.”

The fact that bullying is such a hot topic of discussion these days makes this work especially intriguing. Perhaps it’ll answer one of my one burning questions: Why are parents (and politicians) who bully so suprised when children follow in their footsteps?

They’ll also present the Southwest premiere of “Daddy Long Legs” — a musical that’s based on the novel by Jean Webster. It features book by John Caird (who also directs), and music/lyrics by Paul Gordon.

“Daddy Long Legs” couples coming of age saga and love story. Told “through a series of letters,” it’s described as “a testament to the power of the written word.”

Valley theater-goers might have had more experience with the next show in ATC’s 2011-2012 season — “Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps.” Lizabeth and I first saw this one at ASU Gammage, then at the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

“The 39 Steps,” which features four actors in well over 100 roles, is described by some as “spy novel meets Monty Python.” It’s the tale of a mild-mannered man who finds himself tangled up with murder, espionage and a dash of flirtacious misadventure. When well cast (which I certainly expect to be the case with ATC), it’s one of the funniest shows around.

An additional offering in the ATC 2011-2012 season is Simon Levy’s adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” — based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name. It explores a world of wealth and privilege during the “jazz age” of 1920s America.

It’s hard to imagine a stronger season. And while Lizabeth is truly disappointed she won’t be here to experience these shows, ATC’s 2011-2012 offerings will serve me well by providing poignant, powerful fare and a much needed distraction as I miss my favorite theater companion.

— Lynn

Note: Arizona Theatre Company presents their “Curtains Up Cabaret 2011” Sat, April 30 at the Herberger Theater Center. Click here to learn more.

Coming up: Musings on “message” movies, Valley teen does comedy