THEATER REVIEW
“Tuck Everlasting”
Grade: B+
7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays. 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. 7:30 p.m. Sundays. Through Feb. 22. Tickets start at $21 (for children under 13), $35 for adults.Alliance Theatre, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-733-5000, alliancetheatre.com.
Bottom line: Pure magic.
Apparently, the fountain of youth ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.
As evidenced by the family stuck in time in Natalie Babbitt’s “Tuck Everlasting,” it’s a sentence to hell.
A classic fairy tale describing a young woman’s descent into a dark and mysterious underworld, Babbitt’s 1975 fantasy novel for children has been set to music in a glorious new Broadway-scale spectacle, which opened Wednesday night at the Alliance Theatre.
Perched on the shoulders of giants — Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” and Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” come to mind — the haunting new musical by Claudia Shear (book), Chris Miller (music) and Nathan Tysen (lyrics) is at its everlasting best when the doomed family examines the costs of immortality.
Though Casey Nicholaw, the director and choreographer, is known for such crude, scabrous comedies as “The Book of Mormon” and “Spamalot,” here he works in a decidedly more whimsical mode. Set in 1914, the story centers on 10-year-old Winnie Foster (the wonderful Sarah Charles Lewis), who lives in a tiny house with her mother (Liza Jaine) and her Nana (the exquisite Shannon Eubanks).
Meanwhile, the Tucks, who accidentally drank the magical water many years earlier, are holed up nearby. As the story unfolds, Winnie trips into the Tuck netherworld and falls under the spell of Jesse (Andrew Keenan-Bolger), who looks 17 but is really 104. Her disappearance spurs an investigation led by a fumbling town constable (Fred Applegate) and creates an opening for the slimy carnival impresario, The Man in the Yellow Suit (the delightfully louche Terrence Mann).
Everyone has a dream here: Winnie wants to go to the fair. Jesse wants to marry her. The Man in the Yellow Suit wants to get rich. But Mae Tuck (Carolee Carmello) paints a cautionary tale — in the aching lament “My Most Beautiful Day” — as does her handsome son Miles (Robert Lenzi) in the melancholy “Time.” (It should be noted that Carmello, who is leaving the show for Broadway’s “Finding Neverland,” gives her final performance Feb. 5. She will be replaced by Beth Leavel.)
It’s a tribute to the story that we are so easily seduced by the otherworldly conceit. The tone is nearly perfect, except for the rather maudlin bits in which Winnie yearns to know more about her dead father.
In pursuit of the circle-of-life conceit, Nicholaw gets carried away with the chorus of ballet dancers who flit in and out of the story and set up the big finale, “Everlasting Ballet.” Though it’s lovely to look at and gives the show symmetry, it’s odd the way the narrative dissolves into dance and gets all Twyla Tharp on us there at the end. Should “Tuck” move to Broadway, it’s probably going to need a stronger closing and a little more muscle in the dance department.
These are fairly minor caveats, however. The show features a terrific cast and drop-dead gorgeous design. Walt Spangler’s sets — dominated by an enormous tree that sports the sinuous wooden curves of a Gaudi staircase — are meticulously crafted. Gregg Barnes’ Victorian-era costumes have been lovingly draped, stitched and embroidered. Kenneth Posner paints the storybook landscape in sensitive light.
In sum, it’s the kind of Broadway-ready handiwork that’s made the Alliance a go-to theater for major new musicals. I expect “Tuck Everlasting” to have a long life, and one that’s a great deal happier than its titular family.
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