June 3, 2005
THEATER BEAT
Left to wonder 'If Only ... '
Missed opportunities abound in "If Only ... ," Matthew
Goldsby's ambitious but unfortunate musicalization of Balzac's "Le Pere
Goriot."
Balzac's 1835 novel dramatizedÑsome say melodramatizedÑthe moral
quicksand of a materialist, post-revolutionary France. In Goldsby's streamlined
but still overpopulated adaptation, though, we get more plot points than
narrative sense.
Wide-eyed young law student Eugene (Dustin Strong) crashes Paris
society to chase wealthy married women, with the encouragement of a well-placed
cousin (Elisa J. Nixon). He eagerly learns the right social moves, but in the
process drains his family's savings and manages to overlook the lovely,
virtuous heiress next door, Victorine (Makinna Ridgway).
It takes another of Eugene's fellow boarders, the diabolical dandy
Vautrin (Fred Sanders), to point out Victorine's market value. Yet another
boarder, the distracted oldster Goriot (Norman Snow), gloms onto Eugene when he
finds out the young man is wooing his daughter (Leslie McDonel), who only calls
on dad when she's short on cash.
Craig Carlisle's nimble direction gives the material what shape it
has, though only the large-cast scenes in the boarding house really come to
life. Goldsby's score has moments witty ("Wits With Us," the
protestation of a pair of crusty pensioners, well played by Melinda Peterson
and Robert W. Goldsby) and pretty ("I Can Tell," a ballad given ringing
tones by Ridgway's ripe soprano).
But mostly his neoclassical music and banal lyrics plod along
blandly. "Let go and simply flow," Victorine advises Eugene at one
point. If it were that simple, there would be no show.
"If Only ... ," Tugboat Productions at the Globe
Playhouse, 1107 N. Kings Road, West Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7
p.m. Sundays. Ends June 19. $20. (323) 960-7863 or www.plays411.com. Running
time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.