NEW ADAPTATION OF LEONARD BERNSTEIN’S RARELY-PRODUCED “CANDIDE” BY TONY AWARD WINNER MARY ZIMMERMAN BEGINS
HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY’S 30TH SEASON ON SEPTEMBER 10
WHAT: Huntington Theatre Company begins 30th Anniversary Season with Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, directed and newly adapted from the Voltaire by Mary Zimmerman.
WHEN: September 10 – October 16, 2011
Evenings: Tues. – Thurs. at 7:30pm; Fri. – Sat. at 8pm; Select Sun. at 7pm
Matinees: Select Wed., Sat., Sun. at 2pm
Days and times vary; see complete schedule at end of release.
WHERE: Boston University Theatre – 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA
TICKETS: Single tickets, starting at $25, and subscriptions available:
online at huntingtontheatre.org;
by phone at 617 266 0800, or
in person at the BU Theatre Box Office, 264 Huntington Ave. or the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA Box Office, 527 Tremont St. in Boston’s South End.
$5 off: senior and military
$10 Subscriber and BU Community discounts
$25 “35 Below” tickets for patrons 35 years old and younger (valid ID required)
$15 student rush seats (available 2 hrs. before curtain time for each performance; valid ID required)
(Boston) – The award-winning hit production of Candide that sold out in Chicago and Washington, DC comes to the Huntington Theatre Company in September to kick off its 30th Anniversary Season. Tony Award and MacArthur “Genius” winner Mary Zimmerman (Metamorphoses on Broadway, Journey to the West and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Huntington) helms the production, for which she has newly adapted the book from Voltaire’s text. Doug Peck offers music direction of Leonard Bernstein’s beloved score, featuring nearly 30 songs. The ambitious production, featuring an award-winning cast of 19 and a live orchestra of 14 musicians, recreates Voltaire’s satirical story of Candide (Geoff Packard, Helen Hayes Award winner for his portrayal), a young optimist shipwrecked, soldiered, swindled, and separated repeatedly from his true love, Cunegonde (Lauren Molina, Helen Hayes award winner for her portrayal). Variety calls this production, “The best of all possible Candides!”
“Candide is exquisite entertainment — a blend of opera, comedy, travel, adventure, and romance,” says Zimmerman, whose major revival has been made using her signature style of collaboration with her company and creative team. The quick-paced story follows the young Candide, living on his Baron uncle’s manor estate and studying the philosophy of Dr. Pangloss, who teaches that everything happens for the best. When Candide and the Baron’s daughter Cunegonde fall in love and are discovered, they are cast out into the world. The audience takes a satirical ride with the pair through adventures and misfortunes that test their seemingly undoubting optimism. Bernstein’s Candide enchants with some of the most memorable music ever written for Broadway including “The Best of All Possible Worlds,” “Oh Happy We,” “I Am Easily Assimilated,” “Glitter and be Gay,” and “Make Our Garden Grow.”
“One of the things that we wanted to do for our 30th Anniversary Season was return our productions to a level of grandeur, ambition, and imagination in our larger space,” says artistic director Peter DuBois, “and that’s just what Mary’s production of Candide will do.”
“Candide’s gorgeous music and lyrical wit act as proof of the very best potential of human beings and the beauty of this life—while at the same instant, the story is revealing some of the worst and most difficult aspects of that life,” says Zimmerman. Voltaire’s satiric genius is found in Candide’s earnest attempts to trivialize the tragedy and uphold the contention of his mentor, Dr. Pangloss, that all things happen for the best in this ‘best of all possible worlds’. Although the journey is described with humor, Voltaire also raises serious questions: How can mankind deal with disaster without surrendering to despair? Can optimism prevail in a world that frequently seems randomly cruel? How is survival itself possible in an environment that often gleefully refutes Pangloss’s hopeful axiom?
Mary Zimmerman (adapter/director) is the 1998 recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the 2002 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play, and ten Joseph Jefferson Awards (including Best Production and Best Direction). At the Huntington, she directed Journey to the West (also at the Goodman Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She is a member of the Lookingglass Theatre Company of Chicago, an Artistic Associate of both Goodman Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre, and a professor of performance studies at Northwestern University. She has adapted and directed across the country Argonautika, Mirror of the Invisible World, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, The Odyssey, Arabian Nights, Metamorphoses (Tony Award), Secret in the Wings, and a new opera with Philip Glass called Galileo Galilei. She made her Metropolitan Opera directorial debut with Lucia di Lammermoor in 2007; subsequent Met productions include Armida and La Sonnambula.
Leonard Bernstein (composer, 1918 – 1990) was a world-renowned musician, conductor, and composer throughout his entire adult life. He was music director of the New York Philharmonic and conducted the world’s major orchestras, recording hundreds of these performances. His books and the televised Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic established him as a leading educator. His compositions include Jeremiah, The Age of Anxiety, Kaddish, Serenade, Five Anniversaries, Mass, Chichester Psalms, Slava!, Songfest, Divertimento for Orchestra, Missa Brevis, Arias and Barcarolles, Concerto for Orchestra, and A Quiet Place. Bernstein composed for the Broadway musical stage, including On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide, and West Side Story. In addition to their West Side Story collaboration, Bernstein worked with choreographer Jerome Robbins on three major ballets: Fancy Free, Facsimile, and Dybbuk. Born in Lawrence, MA and educated at Boston Latin and Harvard College, Bernstein was the recipient of many honors, including the Tony Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Theatre, eleven Emmy Awards, the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors.
THE CAST
Tom Aulino (Baron, others), Spencer Curnutt (Sailor, others), McCaela Donovan (Pacquette, others), Alexander Elisa (Inkeeper, others), Rebecca Finnegan (Baroness, others), Evan Harrington (Orator, others), Erik Lochtefeld (Maximilian, others), Lauren Molina (Cunegonde), Abby Mueller (Orator’s Wife, others), Geoff Packard (Candide), Jeff Parker (Anabaptist and others), Jesse Perez (Cacambo, others), Emma Rosenthal (Bird, others), Cheryl Stern (Old Lady), Timothy John Smith (Governor, others), Joey Stone (Soldier, others), Tempe Thomas (Queen of El Dorado, others), Travis Turner (Servant, others), and Larry Yando (Pangloss, others). Swings are Tom Hamlett and Shonna McEachern. A third will be announced shortly.
PRODUCTION ARTISTS
Mary Zimmerman (direction/adaptation), Doug Peck (Musical Direction), Daniel Pelzig (Choreography), Dan Ostling (Scenic Design), Mara Blumenfeld (Costume Design) Timothy J. Gerckens (Lighting Design), Richard Woodbury (Sound Design), M. William Shiner (Production Stage Manager), Kevin Fitzpatrick (Stage Manager), Katie Most (Stage Manager).
SPONSORS
· Grand Patron: Boston University
· 30th Anniversary Sponsor: Carol G. Deane
· Season Sponsor: J. David Wimberly
· Production Sponsors: Gerry and Sherry Cohen
· Production Co-Sponsor: Shirley Spero
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
“Gorgeously imagined, Candide is a garden of delights!” – Chicago Tribune
“Zimmerman makes many of the songs feel far more dramatic and layered than they have before. The best of all possible Candides.” — Variety
“A pleasure to behold…polished, pretty, and well-sung.” — The New York Times
“Eye-poppingly lavish. An extravagant parade of wonders. The cast is an embarrassment of riches. Gardens bloom eternal in Zimmerman’s Candide.” — Chicago Examiner
ABOUT THE HUNTINGTON
Since its founding in 1982, the Huntington Theatre Company has developed into Boston’s leading theatre company. Bringing together superb local and national talent, the Huntington produces a mix of groundbreaking new works and classics made current. Led by Artistic Director Peter DuBois and Managing Director Michael Maso, the Huntington creates award-winning productions, runs nationally renowned programs in education and new play development, and serves the local theatre community through its operation of the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. The Huntington is in residence at Boston University. For more information, visit huntingtontheatre.org.
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MORE ON CANDIDE
THE ADAPTATION
Few modern musicals have enjoyed the extensive exploration and reexamination that Candide has in the years following its 1956 Broadway debut. Mary Zimmerman, “a specialist in literary spectacle (from whom) theatrical fireworks are expected” (The New York Times), has created a new book for this production by returning afresh to Voltaire’s original Candide, Or Optimism (1759). She has ordered the sequence of events in Candide’s adventure—many of which had been altered for previous productions—to align more closely with the novella’s original structure.
Music Director Doug Peck has tailored Bernstein’s score for the cast of 19 and orchestra of 14, “wrapping the music around Mary’s adaptation, blending Bernstein and Voltaire in a way that emphasizes them both.” Audiences will be treated to such popular songs as “Candide Overture,” “The Best of All Possible Worlds,” “It Must Be So,” “I Am Easily Assimilated,” “We Are Women,” “My Love,” “Quiet,” and the heartfelt finale, “Make Our Garden Grow.” Bernstein’s score reflects a variety of classical influences, including Mozart and Verti (“Auto-da-fé”), Gilbert and Sullivan (“Bon Voyage”), Gounod’s Faust (“Glitter and Be Gay”) and Schoenberg (“Quiet”).
“With Candide, Bernstein composed something wholly unusual; the singing style is more complex and challenging than most musicals,” said Peck, who bases his orchestrations on those used in the Royal National Theatre’s production, and uses underscoring for scenes that Zimmerman selected from the novella but that were never set to music.
THE HISTORY
“There is more of me in that piece than anything else I have ever done.” (Leonard Bernstein, on Candide)
The idea for musicalizing Voltaire’s novella came to Bernstein and playwright Lillian Hellman in the midst of the anti-Communist Congressional purges of the early 1950s; both agreed that the political excesses of 18th century France mirrored the assault on individual rights that they were experiencing. Collaborating with lyricist John Latouche, Hellman and Bernstein began work in 1954, eventually involving young poet Richard Wilbur as lyricist, and Dorothy Parker and James Agee contributing to the book, as well.
Candide premiered on Broadway in 1956, playing at Boston’s Colonial Theatre beforehand. The show’s cast recording attracted a cult following among musical theater aficionados, but few new productions were attempted until 1974, when director Harold Prince created a new version of the show for Brooklyn’s Chelsea Theater Center. Hugh Wheeler created a new book that emphasized the loopy humor of Voltaire’s satire. In 1982, again under Prince’s direction, the New York City Opera presented a greatly expanded Candide, and Prince revived Candide on Broadway in an opulent 1997 production. A year later, British director/playwright John Caird created another new iteration of the show for a production at London’s Royal National Theatre. Although Bernstein’s score remained intact, both Sondheim and Wilbur provided slightly revised lyrics for some songs.
A 2004 semi-staged New York Philharmonic concert version starred Kristin Chenoweth as Cunegonde and Patti LuPone as the Old Lady. In honor of the show’s 50th anniversary in 2006, Candide was revived at Paris’ Théâtre du Châtelet and at La Scala in Milan.
See excerpts of musical numbers from Candide at huntingtontheatre.org/candidevideo.
THE BOSTON CONNECTIONS
· Composer Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, MA. He attended Boston Latin and Harvard College.
· Candide played Boston’s Colonial Theatre in 1956 before premiering on Broadway.
· The cast includes Boston actors McCaela Donovan as Paquette (The Donkey Show at A.R.T.’s Oberon, The Drowsy Chaperone at SpeakEasy Stage Company) and Timothy John Smith as the Governor (Prelude to a Kiss at the Huntington, Nine at SpeakEasy Stage Company, and The Receptionist at Trinity Repertory Company).
THIS PRODUCTION
· A Voltaire Musical? Must be Mary Zimmerman at the Goodman, Chicago Tribune, 9/10/10
· First-degree Bernstein: Doug Peck revamps Candide’s score, Time Out Chicago, 9/22/10
(Also available at huntingtontheatre.org/AboutCandide)
PRODUCTION CALENDAR AND RELATED EVENTS