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Zorba! At City Center Encores!
by Julia Polinsky Handsomely staged but with no center, this dark revival tries hard to charm Encores! at City Center started life as concert performances of neglected musical theater. Things change; the series has morphed into cobbled-together almost-revivals, casting an eye on Broadway. Audiences love Encores! And audiences also love musicals by John Kander and Fred Ebb, so Encores! revived Zorba! as part of this season. Audiences are not always wise (even when fewer exclamation points are involved). The show starts with the memorable line, “Life is what you do when you’re waiting to die.” Say what? This is the first line of a musical? Well, yes. If that’s not an indicator that you’re not in for a jolly evening, the somber colors of the set and costuming should give you another clue. Anna Louizos’ excellent set design makes the show work, but it’s stark and dark; William Ivey Long’s costumes evoke shadowy, mythic images and muddy-colored Greek peasants Director Walter Bobbie seems to have resigned storytelling to the effective, but subdued, set. Even music director Rob Berman and the first-rate orchestra can’t brighten Zorba! The story, such as it is, pretty much presses darkness into every corner, while claiming to be a celebration of life.
Uptight, American Niko (Santino Fontana) has inherited a mine on Crete. In a taverna in Greece, he’s approached by a Greek man (John Turturro). This, of course, is Zorba! who, after croaking a song about how life is to be savored minute by minute, past and future don’t matter, and women are great, invites himself to Crete to work the mine with Niko. He’s going to liberate Niko’s soul, make him less “logical.” In Crete, Niko and Zorba find a mine that needs expensive repair and miners steeped in small town, narrow-minded behaviors. And what small Greek town would be complete without a widow, and a young man besotted with her? Or a retired French floozy chanteuse, and a priest, and a constable, even – wait for it -- a village idiot. For that matter.
We have The Leader, who’s a one-woman Greek chorus, or maybe she’s all 3 Fates rolled into one; hard to tell.
Incredibly, things go downhill from there. This beautiful mess churns pointlessly for a while, until Niko and Zorba have had loveless sex; the widow, the chanteuse, and the village idiot are dead; Zorba has embezzled funds, been age-shamed by a belly dancer, entered a sham marriage, and blew up the mine; and Niko has decided to give up and go home, but not before asking Zorba to teach him to dance. This last probably is supposed to convince the audience that Niko’s “logical” soul has been freed, and he has learned to enjoy life. “Unconvincing” would be understatement. Most of the cast dances ably and sings well, with a few performers worth mentioning. Santino Fontana, who sings beautifully, has the thankless task of trying to make Niko interesting when the role itself is boring; he does what he can. John Turturro, egregiously miscast as the engaging, larger than life Zorba, turns in an unappealing, vaguely menacing, awkward performance, one that leaves a hole in the center of the show.
Zoe Wanamaker, as Madame Hortense, mugs, camps, vamps, and somehow manages not to be pathetic until she fades away, singing. Marin Mazzie, in full-throated glory, sings The Leader with a fine snarl. About the score: forgettable, with a couple of exceptions. “No Boom Boom” amuses. “Why Can’t I Speak/That’s A Beginning” evokes pity. “The Crow” manages to be both menacing and monotonous; the song itself appeals less than the effective staging surrounding it. “Life Is” gets stuck in the head, alas. Zorba! offers one of Kander and Ebb’s least appealing scores, in a depressing show about an unappealing main character. If life is what you do when you’re waiting to die, be glad you didn’t spend yours on this charmless, Encores! production. Encores! Great American Musicals In Concert® 2016 Season Information 
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