The last time an Equity theater company in San Diego County staged "Camelot," none other than Tony winner Christian Hoff was in the supporting cast (as Mordred, at Welk Resort Theatre, in 2000).
Needless to say, the sweeping Lerner and Loewe musical classic doesn't get staged very often. Despite an excellent score and a familiar story, the stage musical's script hasn't aged well and it's difficult to produce King Arthur's castle, the round table and epic knight battles without things looking corny and cheap.
A new national touring production of "Camelot," which launched Sept. 11 in L.A. and makes it second stop in San Diego this week, is promising but still has some kinks to work out.
The sets are on the silly side (the round table and a distant view of castle Camelot are simply painted on backdrops), the ensemble cast is small, most of the knights are on the skinny/pudgy/smallish side, and Glenn Casale's often over-the-top stage direction is heavy on cape-swishing and anachronistic sight gags (watch Lancelot's sword rise in the "ways of the flesh" line in "C'est Moi," and for Arthur's eye-popping gag). But to its credit, the production is also peppy, respectably sung and musicalized, colorfully lit, has some great sword fights and a couple of standout performances.
"La Bamba" film star Lou Diamond Phillips heads the cast as King Arthur. Like other Arthurs before him (Richard Burton in the original 1960 Broadway production and Richard Harris in the 1967 film), Phillips is no singer. Arthur's song-speak musical numbers fortunately don't ask a lot, and Phillips performs them acceptably and mostly on key, even in the challenging, all-over-the-tonal range solo "How to Handle a Woman." He occasionally raced through his lines and seemed nervous in the early scenes on opening night, but he settled in after an hour or so.
What Phillips does bring to the round table is acting talent. He's believably boyish as the younger Arthur, who reluctantly becomes England's king after pulling a mythic sword from a stone. His later suffering -- when his straying queen Guenevere falls for his less-than-knightly knight Lancelot -- is palpable. And his final scene, where he urges a squire to spread the story of Camelot far and wide, is inspired.
But Lancelot not only steals Arthur's wife, he also steals the show, thanks to Matt Bogart's terrific performance as the self-adoring French knight. San Diego audiences know Bogart well. He starred in the world premiere of three recent San Diego musicals -- "Ace" and "Himself and Nora" at the Old Globe, and "Zhivago" at La Jolla Playhouse, where he won a San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award for his performance as the revolutionary Strelnikov.
Bogart's got a rich baritone voice, rock-solid comic abilities (shown best in "C'est Moi") and he's as handsome and studly as the role requires. His resemblance (from his haircut to his costumes) to the film version's dreamy Franco Nero appears to be no accident.
Rachel de Benedet has femininity and grace as the troubled queen Guenevere, and she's got a fine singing voice (particularly in "Before I Gaze at You Again"), but she feels a little old for the part of Arthur's teen bride.
Another standout is Time Winters as Pellinore, the comic wandering king who becomes an aged father figure to Arthur after Arthur's early mentor, the sorcerer Merlyn, is bewitched by the woods spirit Nimue (sung beautifully by Melina Kalomas). Winters has the best English accent in the cast, the humor and timing of a clown and a rich theatrical stage voice well-suited to the Arthurian period.
Former Vista resident (and Moonlight Amphitheatre regular) Eric Anderson gives a quirky performance as the sorcerer Merlyn. Bewigged in waist-length dreadlocks and unfortunately costumed in a Vegas-style, chest-baring robe, he twirls his staff like a drum major and moves and dances like a marionette pulled by invisible strings.
Shannon Stoeke is snidely evil as Arthur's scheming illegitimate son Mordred (the role of his mother, the sorcerer Morgan Le Fey, has been cut from this touring show). And Chris Waren Gilbert, Christian Whelan and former Carlsbad resident Robert J. Townsend are strong singers and sword-fighters as the knights Sir Dinaden, Lionel and Sagramore, respectively. Tavis Danz delivers youthful innocence as the young squire Tom of Warwick.
The musical's choreography, and especially its fight scenes, are well-staged to fill the Civic Theatre's large stage in spite of a small cast. Tom Ruzika's lighting is magical and musical director Craig Barna ably leads a large orchestra though the score.
"Camelot" runs three hours, with intermission. That's long by today's short-attention-span standards, but director Casale keeps the pacing fast so it's hard to get bored. This new touring production of "Camelot" can only get better as the cast settles in.
"Camelot"
When: 7 p.m. Sept. 26; 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27; 8 p.m. Sept. 28; 2 and 8 p.m. Sept. 29; 1 and 6 p.m. Sept. 30
Where: San Diego Civic Theatre, Third Avenue at B Street, San Diego
Tickets: $19-$67
Info: (619) 570-1100
Web: www.broadwaysd.com
