Word: rochman
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...tragedy of the show is the convergence of innocent adversity -- Jets and Sharks -- a prelude to trouble," director Guy Rochman explains in a program note for those who might not notice otherwise; but his characters' lives start out seeming a lot more innocent than adverse...
SINCE HE first saw Jacques Brel...--three times in one week--Guy Rochman has known that someday he would direct that musical revue. "It was a traumatic point in my life, the fall of '68... I was taking drivered and breaking up with my girl. I saw the show and fell in love with it." He wanted to sing 'Amsterdam', but he wanted to direct it even more. When the lights went up on Wednesday night's black tie Patron's Preview, Guy had brought off the first non-professional staging of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living...
...Brel. She can turn from a light number to give serious pieces like "My Death" or "Sons of ---" more than their native depths. In between she is a bubbly personality who cannot seem to suppress her enjoyment as if it were her first prom, instead of her first job. Rochman's performance was just as powerful if a bit more self-conscious. "Put the best sheets on the bed, Mathilde's come back to me!" he shouts in an exotic number that combined a love song with a fighting frenzy...
...himself. Some of the songs--notably "Fanette" and the finale "If We Only Have Love"--are trite and slurpy. The cast was good enough to overwhelm Brel's lack of ideas with its own fire but Blau and Shuman's unfortunate use of the English language is sometimes jarring. (Rochman is obliged to shout that he wants to be "cute, cute, cute, in a stupid...
...enthusiasm of Rochman and comapny extends from the revue to the neighborhood. They have dandied Mather dining hall up with tablecloths and baskets of polished fruit that turn out to be authentic. Tables ring the ciruclar stage and the actors flirt with members of the audience--which could be dangerous if someone beveraged on the complimentary DiSabato Rose gets jealous. But Wednesday night, with tuxedoed patrons filling the tables and Art at the fore it was a sort of provincial triumph for Mather House. It's a long slouch back from Alphaville...