‘Aida’ blends classic tale and inspiring music

Timothy Titus

We often gaze so impassively at relics from the past, at artifacts

from other cultures and other eras. Thinking of them as simply

relics, with our minds so locked in the present, we fail to instill

into history the dynamic personal stories, the love, the fear and the

violence attached to the very real lives of those who lived before

us.

Perhaps simply adapting the opera “Aida” into a modern Broadway

musical was enough to make this very point, but Elton John’s and Tim

Rice’s “Aida,” which opened Wednesday night at the Orange County

Performing Arts Center, is more than just another adaptation among

the sea of adaptations and revivals so uninspiringly dragged onto the

stage in recent years. This show successfully integrates an old

story, a wonderful score that actually advances the plot,

breathtaking visual effects and intelligent themes that will keep

your brain rocking as much as the music does.

How fitting that a play that takes place among the pyramids of

ancient Egypt should center itself around a love triangle. More than

a two-dimensional love triangle, however, the three main characters

are caught in an interweaving mess of expectations and

responsibilities that is complicated by love, completing a fully

fleshed, three-dimensional pyramid of a relationship among the

characters Radames (Jeremy Kushnier), Amneris (Lisa Brescia), and

Aida (Paulette Ivory).

Each one loves, each one is plagued by outside responsibilities,

and each one grows throughout the story, further complicating the

pyramid of relationships. And, as Zoser (Micky Dolenz) reminds us, in

ancient Egypt, pyramids mean death.

Jeremy Kushnier plays Radames, the Egyptian captain at the zenith

of the pyramid, with impressive combination of force, energy and

sensuality. His strong range, both physically and vocally, help tell

his story and depict the changes in his character. Young and brash at

the beginning, the picture of imperialistic strength and optimism,

Kushnier also manages to let us in on the outside forces that

manipulate Radames and his vulnerability to them, making his change

to the romantic, self-sacrificing lover fully believable.

Very few people could play the title role. The character of Aida

requires incomparable vocal range, a powerful voice, the ability to

carry an entire show and the subtlety to communicate this strong

character’s rather profound weaknesses, weaknesses that form the

central plot of the show.

Ivory is blessed with a singular possession of all of these

capabilities. She attacks her formidable singing assignments

effortlessly, with a pure and well-trained voice.

Aida makes mistakes in this show, mistakes that one might not

believe or expect from this character, who is presented from the

beginning as strong and resolved. To make the audience believe these

changes, the actress must be able to let the audience see into her

head, a feat not easily performed in the gigantic confines of the

Performing Arts Center.

Ivory, however, succeeds at this most difficult facet of her

character by using vocal tones, timing and facial expressions to her

full advantage. The only drawback to Ivory’s Aida is her speaking

voice, which tends to fall into predictable patterns that become

tiresome, like a repeating squeaking noise in an otherwise beautiful

new car.

Perhaps the most important transformation occurs in the character

of Amneris, the arranged fiancee of Radames and daughter of the

Pharaoh. Given the superficiality of her character the first time we

see her in the Egypt setting, it is easy to wonder why it is she who

introduces and concludes the show as a sort of mini narrator.

Brescia’s Amneris, however, is a feminist ideal of empowerment of

the weak. She begins as the Disney princess who has everything, but

understands nothing. Her life is dominated by the tabloid lifestyle

of fashion, trend setting and worldly ignorance for which the

privileged are so often satirized. But her character grows as her

awareness grows.

When she finally realizes the extent of her betrayal by Radames

and Aida, she seizes the power which is hers by birth. Brescia’s

Amneris progresses from helpless and ignorant, a passenger on the

luxurious coattails of men, to a strong, wise, powerful and confident

ruler in her own right who is even able to show mercy to those who

betrayed her.

Brescia portrays this journey extraordinarily with transforming

physicality and voice. She makes Amneris the most interesting, most

dynamic, and most satisfying character journey in the show.

The three leads are supported by a talented chorus that is more

than backup singing and dancing. This is a chorus with amazing voices

and individual personalities who take on their various roles,

costumes and dance styles in a manner that makes them integral to the

telling of the story.

Eric L Christian plays the double-dealing slave Mereb with

sympathy and humor, providing a smooth connection among the three

lovers, but Micky Dolenz is disappointing as Radames’ ambitious

father, Zoser. Dolenz is more of a cartoon trying to be humorously

bad than the cold, calculating, heartless political manipulator that

Zoser’s actions, dialogue and musical numbers reveal him to be. His

characterization conflicts with the goals that drive his character.

All too often, beautiful sets and costumes overshadow mediocre

plays. “Aida” avoids this trap completely. Bob Crowley’s sets and

costumes in this show are ravishing. They work together to set the

place and time, but are anachronistic enough to effectively present

the show’s message of connection between the past and the present. At

the same time, their beauty only contributes to, and does not take

over, the story being presented. The sets and costumes are supporting

characters in the show, creative and well-used, but not relied upon.

“Aida” is a rare show that successfully pleases all the senses.

John and Rice’s score is excellent, but not bloated. Linda

Woolverton, Robert Falls and David Henry Hwang have written a script

that complements the music and poignantly blends the show’s themes of

timelessness, historical misinterpretation, betrayal and military

imperialism. Visually, the show is at once fascinating and fantastic.

Every aspect of the show is skillfully crafted and harmonizes with

the overall presentation. “Aida” is a feast for the eyes, the ears,

the brain and the heart.

* TIMOTHY TITUS reviews local theater on occasion.