REVIEW: The Gardens of Anuncia

Review of the Saturday, November 4, 2023 evening preview performance at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center. Starring Enrique Acevedo, Andrea Burns, Eden Espinosa, Priscilla Lopez, Tally Sessions, Mary Testa and Kalyn West. Book, music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa. Orchestrations by Michael Starobin. Scenic design by Mark Wendland. Costume design by Toni-Leslie James. Lighting design by Jules Fischer and Peggy Eisenhauer, recreated by David Lander. Sound design by Drew Levy. Co-choreographer Alex Sanchez. Direction and choreography by Graciela Daniele. 90 minutes, no intermission. Production runs through December 31, 2023.

Grade: A

This is a bio-musical unlike any you've ever seen before. While The Gardens of Anuncia does tell of the life of celebrated choreographer Graciela Daniele, it is only vaguely biographical. Here, we are presented with Anuncia, who narrates a trip back to Peron-era Argentina where she was a young, dream-filled girl being raised by three strong women. Actually, this charming, mystical musical is really a tribute to those women, and not a tribute to the subject of the show. Anuncia is, most of the time, almost incidental. Sure, she jokes about a decades-long career as a dancer and Broadway choreographer, dreading having to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award. But mostly, she muses - through the eyes of her younger self - about the events that shaped her into the woman she became. It is a beautiful, heartfelt remembrance of the generations who raised her, and the closing of the biggest chapter in her life.

Michael John LaChiusa, who provides the book, lyrics and music, has had a long association with Ms. Daniele, and his affection for her permeates the entire show. That's not to say he paints her in an exclusively rosy light - she is as stubborn as she is open, as willful as she is collaborative. Her regrets are as prominent as her accomplishments. The book allows for liberties in the storytelling, with moments displayed and then slightly recounted - she admits that parts of her story are softened and glossed over, Memories are strange things, she says. And there are moments of supernatural realism to make a broader point in a fanciful way: she has conversations with a young buck (literally), for example. (And she admits that this probably won't work for her American audiences. The opposite is true, of course. We buy it hook, line and sinker.) LaChiusa's tango and Latin-infused score is lovely - his most completely accessible to date - with not a clinker in the bunch. That's not to say it isn't rich. I hope there will be a cast recording; I hope to dig deeper into his themes and poetic lyrics. Michael Starobin's orchestrations are on point and also worthy of deeper exploration.

The almost mystical, mythological feel of this memory play are brought to lovely fruition by the entire design team. Mark Wendland's set made up of upside down flowers arranged on delicate wires that reveal themselves to be a labyrinth of infinite paths, and sumptuous, dreamy lighting by Jules Fischer and Peggy Eisenhauer (recreated by David Lander) serve the piece perfectly, allowing an effortless back and forth between past and present, dream and reality. Toni-Leslie James' costumes do the same.

The Mitzi E. Newhouse is an ideal venue for this piece - intimate and dark, where you can feel like the show is being performed only for you. Daniele and co-choreographer Alex Sanchez have gone to great lengths to present the work in such a way that no one in this thrust stage setting is left out of any scene. I don't think there's really a bad seat to be had, given this staging. Given that this musical is about a dancer-choreographer, there aren't many dance numbers per se, but what there is, is striking, particularly a tight, sensual and somewhat violent tango. That said, there is dancing and dreamy movement almost non-stop, as if being weaved in and out of the clouds of memory, and the entire cast is up to the task.

Leading the company of seven as Older Anuncia is an aging dancer herself, Tony-winner Priscilla Lopez, who is as graceful and lithe as ever. Her face, full of wisdom reveals a graceful aging, each line and wrinkle earned by the tough life of a Broadway star - how wonderfully appropriate. Her gentle touch, coupled with a magnetic presence and pointed moments of flare are perfection as she tells us this story. Her counterpart, Younger Auncia, is played with a fierce and fiery commitment by Kayln West. It is clear that Ms. West has studied Ms. Lopez's every movement and expression, so exacting is her approach to the character - there are times when the likeness is uncanny. But her performance is much more and absolutely riveting. She does more acting with her big, beautiful eyes and her set jaw than I may have ever seen. I look forward to seeing her again and soon.

The two male actors in the company each play multiple roles, and are great in all of them. Enrique Acevedo is particularly outstanding in his role as Granpapa, a man big on warmth, and a mysterious air. Tally Sessions, one of my favorite actors, exudes grace and machismo as the deer (yes, he plays a deer - actually 2 of them). He is sexy and beguiling both to Anuncia and the audience, and his powerful voice with Ms. Lopez's in both "Dance While You Can" iterations is a highlight in an evening full of them.

For me, though, the best part is the three women central to Anuncia's upbringing: Mary Testa as Granmama, Eden Espinosa as Mami, and Andrea Burns as Tia. Each of these amazing actresses are so completely enveloped in their characters that they seem to disappear. Ms. Testa offers up her special brand of worldly wisdom and brash delivery, with no shortage of warmth, either. Ms. Espinosa is such a presence here that it is difficult to take your eyes off of her. She is strong but flawed, and I found myself both rooting for her and a bit put off at the same time - I mean that as an entirely positive assessment. And Ms. Burns, who has become one of my favorite actresses of all, is so full of passion, warmth and wisdom, it is no wonder Anuncia is drawn to her as she is. Each has incredible moments to shine individually, but it is when they are together that the magic - and the emotion - really happens. As each drifts out of Anuncia's life, we feel an empathetic wave of grief.

As with most of LaChiusa's works, this isn't a show one goes to to be dazzled and bowled over by flash and excess. You have to come into it open to the possibilities and be willing to participate in active attention. It is a show that, for me at least, only grew better in my heart and mind the further I'm away from it. A complex work about a complex woman, told in idioms central to her celebrated life: her culture and musical theater inextricably woven together.

📸: J. Cervantes

ReDISCoveries: Bernarda Alba (World Premiere Recording, Part Two)

  ReDISCoveries: Bernarda Alba 
(World Premiere Recording, Part Two)

Catch up on Part One HERE

Jeff has kindly invited me to revisit and review some of the older cast recordings in my collection. Every other week or so, I’ll write about a new CD, offering some general impressions followed by my thoughts about each individual song. I continue this week with the 2006 World Premiere Recording of Michael John LaChiusa’s Bernarda Alba.

I recently read the play The House of Bernarda Alba by Federico García Lorca, which is the basis of LaChiusa’s musical. The adaptation is quite faithful, but the musical expands on the action of the play in some interesting ways. In particular, it’s not possible in a play to assign each character an “I Want” kind of monologue without interrupting the narrative, but such a thing is entirely possible within the conventions of a musical, and LaChiusa takes full advantage of that. One literally has to read between the lines to know the personality of each of Bernarda’s daughters in the play, but in the musical this can be made clear in the span of a brief song. 

LaChiusa’s music for Bernarda Alba, along with Michael Starobin’s orchestrations, incorporate flamenco conventions that have likely not been seen or heard on many New York stages. A very busy percussionist isn’t the only source of pulsation, as members of the cast create their own rhythms though copious stomping. Another musician plays pre-modern instruments like the shawm, a double-reed woodwind that sounds as if an oboe were trying to drown out a trumpet played at full blast. Singers regularly make otherworldly barking and yelping noises, and syllables are spread over multiple tortuous notes. Be prepared for sudden outbursts that include all of these effects at once.

If this all sounds like a bit of a slog, the compensating rewards are well worth the effort. There is some striking and unique music here, along with a great deal of more traditional lyricism amidst all the apparent chaos. There’s not much plot until near the end, giving LaChiusa the opportunity to write a series of intensely character-based songs - and there are certainly some worthy characters in this show, each of whom gets a song or two to sing, with striking variation in style and tone. 

THE SONGS

I use a star (*) to mark the songs I particularly like, and my overall favorite gets two stars (**).

I Will Dream of What I Saw: All of the younger women are doing some ogling here as some young workers in the town walk to their jobs. Aside from contributing to the buildup of libidinous energy that will drive the remainder of the show’s plot, this song is fairly negligible.

**Poncia: This is my favorite vocal performance on the recording, and it’s a great, laser-focused piece of songwriting. Poncia (Candy Buckley) finally gets to speak her full mind about her boss Bernarda Alba, and she pulls no punches: she savors the day when she’ll get to “watch, oh so silently, the house of Bernarda fall.” The music and lyrics are equally chilling.

Limbrada’s Daughter: A neighbor’s daughter is about to suffer some terrible consequences for having a child out of wedlock, and Bernarda (Phylicia Rashad) seizes on the opportunity as a teachable moment for her daughters, intoning to the show’s most menacing music that “all women who lust in sin must die.”

*One Moorish Girl/The Smallest Stream: After the servants engage in some playful sexual innuendo (to some very beautiful vocal arrangements), Bernarda sings her final dirge of the evening, lamenting the costs of widowhood and of aging: “I no longer sleep a slumber too deep, for I have to be on my guard.” 

The Mare and the Stallion: In my least favorite song of the show, Bernarda’s daughters witness… well, you can probably guess what they witness just from the title of the song, and that’s the problem. It’s a rather too obvious way to set us up for the show’s (not to mention Adela’s) impending climax.

Lullaby: Amid the building household chaos at the hands of Bernarda, her mother (Yolande Bavan) returns to recall a simpler time when the two could enjoy time together. There’s nothing special about this song, but it’s a nice respite before the intensity of the show’s final sequence.

Open the Door: The music here is tense, restless, and insistent, as Pepe knocks on Adela’s (Nikki M. James) door. She resists at first, but ultimately surrenders to excitement and to mortal danger, effectively ending Bernarda’s reign over her own house.

Finale: Believing that Bernarda has killed Pepe, Adela has killed herself. Having learned nothing, but having lost all of her power, Bernarda insists fruitlessly that her daughters continue the charade: “My daughter died a virgin. And you will keep your silence. Silence. Silence.”

Next time I’ll discuss the 1999 off-Broadway cast recording of Adam Guettel’s Myths and Hymns.

ReDISCoveries: Bernarda Alba (World Premiere Recording, Part One)

 ReDISCoveries: Bernarda Alba 
(World Premiere Recording, Part One)

Jeff has kindly invited me to revisit and review some of the older cast recordings in my collection. Every other week or so, I’ll write about a new CD, offering some general impressions followed by my thoughts about each individual song. I continue this week with the 2006 World Premiere Recording of Michael John LaChiusa’s Bernarda Alba.

This ambitious musical, which played at the off-Broadway Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center, is based on the similarly-named classic play by Federico García Lorca. It tells the story of the titular Bernarda, a mother of five daughters whose husband has just died as the show begins. Deeply wounded by life, she attempts to prevent further harm to herself and her family by tightly controlling their lives, gradually creating a web of secrets, lies, and suppressed desires that results in the destruction of her family from the inside. LaChiusa’s Bush-era musical, reflecting Lorca’s Franco-era play, seems to serve as a metaphorical comment on the creeping authoritarianism of the post-9/11 American security state.

In addition to Bernarda and her daughters, other characters include Bernarda’s own widowed mother and her rather bitter servant. The small all-female cast is tasked with bringing to life this most modern of concept musicals, which is built around the Spanish art form of flamenco. (Direction and choreography by Graciela Daniele) The vivid music and continuous dancing all draw from flamenco traditions, yielding an exotic, fascinating, and sometimes difficult set of songs for the listener. 

Today’s entry covers roughly the first half of the score, which consists of a few expositional numbers followed by some intensely character-focused songs. Next time I’ll review the rest of the CD, which features more plot-based songs. I’ll also offer some comments on LaChiusa’s unique approach to this score, as well as the essential contributions of his orchestrator, Michael Starobin.

THE SONGS

I use a star (*) to mark the songs I particularly like, and my overall favorite gets two stars (**).

*Prologue: The servant Poncia (Candy Buckley) takes us through the entire backstory of Bernarda’s family, including her first marriage to a wealthy man (which produced her oldest daughter Angustias), and her second marriage to a handsome but poor one, Antonio. The sense of musical momentum is very exciting here, aided by Buckley’s vocal effects and the company’s audible flamenco dancing. The lyrics are quite dense, as when Poncia sings: “Antonio left Bernarda’s bed in search of warmth from another: his stepdaughter Angustias, or the servant of her mother.” She’s saying that Antonio’s cheating was an in-house matter involving his own stepdaughter and Poncia herself, but it’s hard for a listener to get all of this out of a couple of quickly sung lines. I think this song, and the score in general, is probably better appreciated on the recording than on stage. 

The Funeral: In this short song, Bernarda (Phylicia Rashad) mourns her husband in traditional Catholic fashion as Poncia and other members of the household staff mutter insults (like “sanctimonious snake!”) behind her back. It’s a good preview of Bernarda’s mournful, self-pitying affect, as well as her relationship with those around her.

On the Day that I Marry/Bernarda’s Prayer: As the servants imagine their own weddings, Bernarda remembers her fraught relationship with Antonio. LaChiusa wisely gives Rashad the simplest music in the show, with slow tempos and long, sustained notes. It’s both expedient and dramatically effective, but it means that the title character gets some of the least memorable music.

Love, Let Me Sing You: A young suitor named Pepe has made an offer of marriage to the oldest and wealthiest daughter, Angustias, and her sisters are by turns dismissive and intensely envious as they mock the song that Pepe sang to her. Pepe is the only man any of them have access to, and this song sets things up for the show’s tragic climax.

*Let Me Go to the Sea: Bernarda’s mother Maria Josepha (Yolande Bavan) has escaped her prison cell of a bedroom and, unlike her granddaughters, she is not shy about making her desires known to Bernarda. The lyrics here do a good job of establishing the character’s lustiness as well as her senility, and the music builds nicely into a full-throated (if futile) demand that Bernarda allow her (and, by implication, her daughters) to go out into the world and build their own lives.

Magdalena: This brief number starts a miniature song-cycle, with a characteristic musical moment for each of the five daughters. Here, Magdalena (Judith Blazer) recounts the story of a man dying of thirst, contrasting it with her own plight in a very dramatic musical line: “My pains, mother, are not pains of hunger; my pains, mother, are the pains of love.”

Angustias: Bernarda’s oldest daughter Angustias (Saundra Santiago) can hear her suitor sing at her window, but she and her sisters know, and sing, the truth: “I can’t hear him in my heart.” In other words, everyone seems to know that Angustias is the sister with the money, but not the one Pepe really desires. 

*Amelia: Amelia (Sally Murphy) is the most innocent of the five sisters, but while out shopping today she has managed to catch the eye of a boy, stirring up some new feelings. The music in this brief song does the heavy lifting: Amelia’s childish, jaunty melody is punctuated with loud intrusions from the drummer (and vocal “bum-bum-bums” from her sisters) whenever the boy is mentioned, a nice aural metaphor for incipient desire.

Martirio: Martirio, who regards herself as the least attractive, contrasts the dreams of her sisters with her own dim prospects. Daphne Rubin-Vega, cast against-type, is probably given the least to work with in the whole show, but does a good job making the most of her relatively unassuming song.

**Adela: In the show’s most complex musical sequence, the youngest sister Adela (Nikki M. James) makes it clear that she will not be playing by Bernarda’s rules: “I won’t be locked away like you,” she insists, to a spare but defiant melody. A vigorous mid-song dance-break gives way to a soaring, almost ALW-like tune, with Adela poignantly vowing to “love while I can in the time that I have.” The sequence ends with a musical montage, with the other four sisters returning to join her with simultaneous reprises of their own songs.

Look for Part Two of this review in two weeks!