Lindsay Mendez (Helen) and Barton Cowperthwaite (Paris)                     phtos by Joan Marcus

 

 

 

                             by Deirdre Donovan

 

The only conclusion to come to after seeing The Golden Apple at New York City Center is that the dedicated folks at Encores! leave no stone unturned when they search for obscure musical treasures that once graced a New York stage. 

 

John Latouche (book) and Jerome Moross’ (music and lyrics) 1954 cult classic, which is a retelling of The Iliad and The Odyssey, drew raves when it premiered Off Broadway on March 11^th, 1954 at the (now-defunct) Phoenix Theatre.  In fact, many then felt that the show might be the next-big-thing on Broadway.  However, when it transferred to Broadway a month later, it failed to flutter the pulses of the uptown sophisticates. True, it did survive the spring season on the Great White Way.  But when the summer arrived, and the heat along with it, box office sales for The Golden Apple dried up. 

 

So has the time come to partake of The Golden Apple again?  Well, yes and no.  It has plenty of songs that are delicious to the ear and the literary borrowings from Homer, if not plummeting his psychological depths, keep his classical spice intact.  Still, we live in the age of Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.  So can an audience today step-up (or is it back?) to grasp the quasi-classical world conjured up in The Golden Apple?  Well, it depends on the viewer.  The work is populated with a mash-up of mythic Greek and fictive American characters.  And they sure can generate some pretty outrageous goings-on in the town of Angel’s Roost and, later on, at the Seaport of Rhododendron.

 

The cast

 

Latouche and Moross set The Golden Apple in America between 1900 and 1910, when the Battle of San Juan Hill and the name of Theodore Roosevelt and his “Rough Riders” still loomed large in the American imagination.  Unsurprisingly, their musical smacks of bold adventure, with one foot planted firmly in mythology, and the other in Americana.  According to the character Helen, “Nothing ever happens in Angel’s Roost!”  But as the plot unspools, you soon discover that you can’t believe everything you hear in town.  In fact, before the finale arrives, you will have watched a slimmed-down and Americanized version of the Trojan War with Ulysses adventures tossed in as a bonus. (And guess who stirs up most of the excitement in town?)

 

The show’s strengths?  No doubt it was the ensemble’s singing and acting.  Lindsay Mendez, playing Helen, was the epitome of the floozy who’s born to flirt and sashay like a femme fatale on the prowl.  Her Act 1 solo, “Lazy Afternoon,” is the most celebrated song from the show, and Mendez, with her terrific pipes slowly teasing out each note in the melody, didn’t disappoint. 

 

Barton Cowperthwaite, as the cad Paris, literally and metaphorically danced himself into Helen’s heart in the same Orchard Scene (choreography by Joshua Bergasse).  But it was the elopement episode a beat later, where Paris airlifts Helen in a hot-air balloon to depart for Rhododendron, that is by far the most spectacular moment in the show. 

 

eff Blumenkrantz (Scylla) and Jason Kravitz (Charybdis)

 

The reliable Jeff Blumenkrantz was well-cast as Helen’s husband Menelaus.  Blumenkrantz, who has a talent for playing characters down on their luck, really was in his element as the cuckolded husband.  Mikaela Bennett, as the patient Penelope, was a revelation here.  Her first solo “My Love is on the Way” gave you a taste of her vocal virtuosity.  But her Act 2 solo “Windflowers” would persuade anyone within earshot that this young artist has a future on New York stages.

 

The conducting and orchestrations (by Rob Berman) throughout were scrumptious from the prelude to the very last notes of the finale.  The strings, the brass, the woodwinds, and the percussion all sounded crisp, rich, and in key.  Yes, the musicians are an integral part of each Encores! performance, and without upstaging the cast, their presence is palpable on stage.

 

Directed by Michael Berresse, this Golden Apple had some shining moments and lots of fun tossed into its mythological world.  But, truth be told, it was caviar to the general, and not for the popcorn-and-soda crowd.

 

Opened on May 10^th; closed on May 14^th.

131 W. 55th St., Manhattan.

For more information on the New York City Center Encores! series, phone 212-581-1212 or visit nycitycenter.org.

Running Time:  2 hours; 15 minutes with one intermission.