Clark Scott Carmichael, Jennifer Hope Wills

                                 By Edward Lieberman

The story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table has inspired generations. One of its more recent iterations was Camelot, a musical crafted by Broadway legends Alan J. Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music), which ran on the Great White Way for over two years (December 1960-January 1963), garnering four Tony Awards. The original Broadway cast featured Richard Burton, as King Arthur, Julie Andrews, as Guenevere, and, Robert Goulet, as Sir Lancelot, and featured elaborate, award-winning costumes and sets. The success of the Broadway production spawned a movie version helmed by Richard Harris, as Arthur and Vanessa Redgrave, as Guenevere.

The production currently running at the Westchester Broadway Theatre through April 5th is a more intimate, scaled-down version of the show, adapted with permission from the Lerner and Loewe estates, which focuses on the love triangle between Arthur, Guenevere and Lancelot.

photos by John Vecchiolla.

For the uninitiated, Camelot depicts the story of King Arthur and his wife Guenevere, who establish a new society, based on civility, the rule of law and chivalry in the form of the Round Table. The show opens with Arthur, a young man clearly overwhelmed by his station, nervously awaiting the arrival of his arranged bride, Princess Guenevere of France, who is just as nervous about meeting her husband and angry at missing out on the “simple joys of maidenhood.” They meet anonymously while they are hiding from each other in the forest. Arthur explains that, under the guidance of his tutor, Merlyn, he has created a new society, one where might is not right, it is for right; where disputes are resolved not on fields of battle and competition (where “everyone knows who will win in advance” simply by comparing the stature of the contestants), but in courts of law, where “you never know how things will turn out until the end!”  Having met not as King and future Queen, but as strangers, Arthur’s fears of adequacy and Guenevere’s fear of missing out on mating rituals are quelled and they fall in love.  

Meanwhile, this idyllic society, where “Violence is not strength, and compassion is not weakness,” has had a disquieting effect on the knights of the realm, who miss being sent on quests,  slaying dragons and the usual raping and pillaging. Into this utopia comes Sir Lancelot, the supremely confident French knight of -- as he tells everyone -- incomparable strength and unimpeachable virtue (“Had I been made the partner of Eve we’d be in Eden still”). At first, Guenevere resents this impudent intruder and implores her favorite knights to vanquish him at the upcoming tournament, but he not only defeats them, he kills one of them . . . but brings him back to life through prayer! This turns Guenevere’s abhorrence to admiration and, eventually, to love; and Lancelot, despite his self-declared “unsparkable will” for whom “the ways of the flesh offer no allure,” returns her love. In the second act their illicit affair is discovered and revealed by Arthur’s ambitious illegitimate son, Mordred, thereby forcing Arthur to arrest them for treason. Lancelot manages to escape, but Guenevere is sentenced to death. Arthur, who still loves them both, permits Lancelot to “rescue” Guenevere and take her away, but is obligated to follow them, thereby setting off  another war that he had so hoped to banish forever as a means of resolving disputes. 

Billy Hepfinger as Sir Lionel, Jordan Wolfe as Mordred, Michael Glavan as Sir Sagramore and Dan Fenaughty as Sir Dinadan.

The show has a definite arc: the first act is full of idealism and hope; the second act descends into the depths of betrayal and despair. What saves this story from a purely pessimistic denouement, is the final scene, where Arthur comes upon a young boy who has run away to fight with him and join the Knights of the Round Table. Arthur knights the boy, and gives him a quest: to return home and tell everyone he sees: “Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot.”

The story of Camelot can be seen as a parable for the 21st Century: where one real or imagined incident (a perceived insult in a cartoon, for example, or, in this case, an illicit love affair) can take down governments and rules of law that have been painstakingly developed over centuries, and return civilization to the barbaric horrors of war, violence and torture from ages past. At a time when the news is full of stories of beheadings and prisoners being burned to death, it was jarring to hear the knights, at Guenevere’s urging, sing about how they would “barbecue” Lancelot, and “vivisect him” so that “his shoulders will be lonesome for his head.”

The cast and direction of this production ably convey the modern sensibilities of this new production. Arthur, for example is not the stately, regal figure associated with actors of the stature of Richard Burton and Richard Harris in the original Broadway production and film, respectively. This Arthur is portrayed by Clark Scott Carmichael as vulnerable and insecure. Although in the beginning of the show, playing the young Arthur, Mr. Carmichael came off as more effeminate than insecure, he did grow into the role of king as the show progressed.  Moreover, unlike Mssrs. Burton and Harris, in Mr. Carmichael we finally have an Arthur who can actually sing!

Jeremiah James as Lancelot du Loc, Jennifer Hope Wills as Guenevere.

Similarly, Jennifer Hope Wills’ Guenevere was assertive, more of a partner to her husband and king than a subject or consort, as befits the changes wrought by the feminist revolution that post-dated the original production. Ms. Wills has looks, voice and diction almost equal to those of Ms. Andrews. Jeremiah James, as Lancelot, had the height, if not the heft and presence of Robert Goulet. The rest of the cast acquitted themselves well, with standout, scene-stealing performances from Martin Van Treuren, in dual roles as the comical King Pellinore and Merlyn, and Jordan Wolfe, as the evil, ambitious Mordred.

In downsizing a show that depended in large degree on spectacle, accommodations had to be made, with varying degrees of success here. The stage at this dinner theater is obviously smaller than a Broadway stage and has seating on three sides. The set design Kyle Dixon, and lighting, by Andrew Gmoser, were more than up to the task, and took advantage of the technical capabilities of the theater, with not one, but two elevators shuttling actors on and off stage, although one of the lifts had a disconcerting habit of jerking suddenly after reaching stage height. The severely downsized orchestra, under the direction of Ryan Edward Wise, with just one French horn in place of a brass section, sounded inadequate to convey the pageantry required in a show of this nature. Costume design, by Janell Berte, and choreography, by Director/Choreographer Richard Sabellico and his assistant, Adolpho Blaire, were uneven. Guenevere’s costumes were resplendent, while those of the knights were not ((i.e. only one suit of armor, and that was not for the knights).   

In sum, go see this updated production, “a Camelot for the 21st Century!”

Camelot. At Westchester Broadway Theatre, One Broadway Plaza, Elmsford, NY 10523. 914-592-2222. Tickets: Dinner & Show $54 - $80.  Thru April 5, 2015. BroadwayTheatre.com