Bus Barn's Aida


The intimate space exposes issues with the piece, but a new diva is born

BusBarn Theatre in Los Altos is a small space where I'm used to seeing small-cast intimate shows. I know they have done more traditional musical theatre pieces before, such as Cabaret and The Goodbye Girl, but I've mostly seen some plays and some smaller musical revues.

Often seeing a big musical in a smaller space, such as Bus barn's or the Foothill Playhouse, is an enlightening experience. Typically such intimate productions help you see or hear more details that get lost in bigger productions. With Aida in particular, having only seen it in a particularly loud, bombastic, over-amplified AMT production, I figured an intimate production would do the piece some good.

But what it exposes is the absolutely insipid and overwrought lyrics of Tim Rice. Sometimes he tries too hard to be deep and "intellectual" using multi-syllabic words for no apparent reason. Honestly, if you listen to closely to Aida's first big number The Past is Another Land or one of the major Aida/Radames duets, Elaborate Lives, you will really find yourself wondering what the hell any of those lyrics mean. Individual lines make some sense, but in their entirety the songs make no sense.

[On a side note: a friend and I were IM'ing the next day that between Aida and Miss Saigon, both based on operas, musical theatre has managed to make a ton of money proving that opera is actually insipid and only elevated by being sung in a foreign language! Sort of like Latin pop star Mark Anthony...buy his Spanish-language albums (if you don't understand Spanish) because the lyrics in the English-language albums will pain you. Meanwhile it all sounds cool in Spanish!]

Anyway, it is a damn shame the libretto is pretty lame because the performers worked overtime to deliver not only vocally strong but emotionally impassioned renditions. So, to appease my friend Robin who hates it when reviewers spend more time on the piece than the specific production of the piece, let's get to those performers.

First, let me introduce you to a new diva in town, Jennifer Oku. She's been in the ensemble at several Foothill shows and was featured in Bus Barn's And the World Goes 'Round, but obviously the role of Aida is a whole other ballgame. The originator of this role did win a Tony for it after all. Jen hit one out of the ballpark, not only with strong theatre pop vocals, but with a strong presence and fine sense of drama. And when you think about the (once again) underdeveloped story you really have to give her props because she has to make it believable that this person would fall in love with Radames because he didn't kill some people. Pretty low bar.

Dramatic New Diva Jen is joined by Long-time Diva Keite Davis. And to their credit they delivered a double diva dose without making our heads explode! Keite as Amneris actually has the more interesting role...while her initial scenes bring a jolt of humor and fun, her character, Amneris, later exposes her insecurities and her humanity...changing and developing into a mature leader from a spoiled princess. (And having most recently seen her in diva soprano mode in Candide and Sweeney Todd it was great to see Keite belting it out!)

There are real heart-rending moments as the triangle between Aida, Amneris and Robert Brewer as Radames play out to their conclusion. These three performers pull off the very tricky part of the plot: making you believe that all three care about one another, just not in the way that's going to make for a happy ending. Yes, I got teary in the end :)

I wasn't under any illusion that Aida is the kind of musical that thrills me, and the only reason I really went to see it, besides supporting the BusBarn Theatre, is because I thought the casting of the three leads was extremely strong and promising. And the production did deliver on that promise.

It also introduced me to one young performer I am going to tell you to keep your eyes out for: Ernestine Balisi had just a few solos as Nehebka, but what a lovely voice! Just out of high school I hope she's sticking around and I'll see her do something a little more substantial next time.

Aida runs through October 1st at the BusBarn Theatre.

Posted: Sat - September 17, 2005 at 08:25 AM       EmailFeedback

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