Freak shows are inherently theatrical. That may well account for why stages in New York and London are replete with characters who invite us to gawk at their deformities, mental or physical. A certain satisfaction, if not relief, stems from the fact that we’re not like them even as they force us to consider that we may have more similarities than we’d care to acknowledge.
This season hosts a panoply of irregularity, including the grotesquely disfigured hero in “The Elephant Man”; the conjoined twins in the musical “Side Show”; Victor Hugo’s misshapen bell ringer in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”; and the loony shooters at presidents of the United States in “Assassins.” The first two are on Broadway, the latter two in San Diego and London, respectively.
“The Elephant Man,” already one of the hottest tickets of the Broadway season, recently opened to strongly positive notices, especially for Bradley Cooper in the title role and for his co-stars Alessandro Nivola, as the doctor who saves him from a side show, and Patricia Clarkson, who introduces him to Victorian society. The critics noted the obvious irony of a man dubbed “The Sexiest Man Alive” by People magazine playing one of the most hideously deformed creatures in history.
But while a slideshow at the beginning of the play shows the repulsiveness of John Merrick’s physical condition — part of a lecture by Nivola’s Dr. Frederick Treves — Cooper is called upon to mimic it simply by assuming contortions of physique and face which turn his voice alternatively into beastly howls or high-pitched, halting speech. For much of the show, directed with elegant simplicity by Scott Ellis, the audience is allowed to gaze — or gawk — at a beautiful man displaying the intuitive intelligence of a character who puts all those around him to shame.
This is not a salve afforded the audiences in the musical “Side Show,” which is a much bolder and in your face retelling of the sad saga of the British-born Hilton Sisters — Violet and Daisy — conjoined twins who were at one time the highest paid entertainers in American vaudeville. Director Bill Condon has evoked the grimy world of the sideshow in all its tatty glory, choosing to realistically depict the women’s freakish compatriots — the Dog-faced Boy, the Reptile Man, and the large-headed Gawky Geek — through the makeup and special effects artistry of Dave Elsey, who won an Oscar for “Wolfman,” and his wife, Lou.
While “Side Show” has its passionate partisans and earned almost across-the-board raves, the show has been struggling at the box-office since it opened last month. Even though “being a freak is virtually the new normal” — as Charles Isherwood put it in his New York Times review— audiences have so far found this audacious and beautiful musical to be resistible. Apparently, the impulse to identify with nature’s mutants only goes so far. The biggest stumbling block lies in the romantic entanglements of the women, which is the motor of the play. It’s hard to wrap one’s mind around the usual intimacies for one of the couples because, well, she’s always going to be there.
Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins,” which consistently earns positive reviews from critics, including its latest incarnation at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory, has also met with the same kind of resistance from audiences. A 2004 Broadway production at Roundabout’s Studio 54 won six Tony Awards, including Best Revival, and only managed to eke out a three-month run.
Sondheim has said that, of all his musicals, “Assassins” is the one work that comes closest to achieving all that he and his librettist, John Weidman, set out to do. The Dean of American musical theater also rankles whenever anybody suggests that the show “glorifies” those who have tried to settle grudges, win fame, or impress a loved one by killing the president of the United States.
“Assassins,” positing that one of America’s highest values is “the pursuit of happiness,” tracks the deviations that occur when the dreams curdle for those who are deranged or mentally unbalanced. As in “Side Show,” with its hapless denizens, audiences have found it difficult to claim these crackpots as our own, despite the utterly seductive nature of Sondheim’s songs, from the jaunty “Everybody’s Got the Right (to Be Happy)” to “Unworthy of Your Love” — a duet between would-be assassins John Hinckley and Lynette Fromme to their respective obsessions, Jodie Foster and Charles Manson.
On the other hand, “Hunchback of Notre Dame,” which is currently in a world premiere engagement at La Jolla Playhouse, is an audience pleaser — at least judging by the enthusiastic response of the audience at a recent matinee performance. Here, Quasimodo the Hunchback, well played by a pleasant-looking Michael Arden, is transformed into his character in full view of the audience, strapped into his hump, his features distorted by slashes of makeup and, as in “The Elephant Man,” his twisted physique making him move with an uneven gait.
Based on the Disney animated film, the musical, directed by Scott Schwartz, features a stunning score by the powerhouse team of Alan Menken (“Beauty and the Beast”) and Stephen Schwartz (“Wicked”). Creating a stunning soundscape — against the backdrop of a row of giant bells designed by Alexander Dodge — is the inspired addition of the 32-strong Sacra/Profana choir, which gives sacred heft to the soaring ballads, anthems, and hymns. Moreover, the score nicely showcases the vocal power of Patrick Page in a bravura performance as Frollo, the Archdeacon of Notre Dame and Quasimodo’s guardian, who is tortured by his desire for the gypsy Esmeralda.
Despite the reverence shown toward Victor Hugo’s timeless classic — and the fact that a cleric’s lust propels much of the action — the show’s cartoon roots are still showing. The pathetic travails of Quasimodo, who also pines for the gypsy Esmeralda, though platonically, are interrupted with scenes of singing and dancing townsfolk straight out the standard Broadway playbook. In an attempt to marry the gravity of “Les Miserables” with the levity of “Beauty and the Beast,” the show ends up undercutting its emotional power.
With a subplot of a romance between Esmeralda and a handsome young Captain Phoebus, the musical is also a mash-up of “Phantom of the Opera,” “Man of La Mancha,” and Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure.” Those aren’t bad shows with which to be compared, and “Hunchback” has the potential to be a hit.
Like John Merrick and Violet and Daisy Hilton, Quasimodo poignantly desires to experience the “heavenly light” of love. And in that, we can all identify.
