![]() Still, for all its strengths, this is not Wager at his musical comedy best. This kind of childlike whimsy, which curdles in lesser hands, is sweet cream in Wager's. Though Jessica Frankel and Dorothy Yanes sing "Sheep's Song" very prettily, it's hard to keep your eyes off the antics the actors give their tiny sheep: Some put their heads together and sing, some dance a little, some just sway in time. Most charmingly, when our unfortunate travelers land on a peaceful island inhabited entirely by sheep, members of the ensemble poke their heads and arms out of trapdoors to manipulate little sheep hand puppets. During "Auto-Da-Fe" - with its famous opening line, "What a day, what a day, for an auto-da-fe," an Inquisition victim burns to bones in a sleight-of-hand instant. At one point a miniature boat sails around the edges of the Fichandler Theater behind the audience. Before singing her song of hedonistic acceptance, "Glitter and Be Gay," Cunegonde is revealed to us in a bath full of plastic soap bubbles a lover hands her a gift: a golden rubber duck. The production is full of playful moments. By show's end, everyone has decided that perhaps the best wisdom is just to plant a nice garden. As the action bounces from country to country, the ravished Cunegonde bounces from brothel to brothel and Candide from one unlucky adventure to another. ![]() There are wars, pirates, brigands, swindlers, rapists, actors (!) and assorted catastrophes. Pangloss (Richard Bauer), who leads them in singing "The Best of All Possible Worlds." Naturally, things go downhill from there. All three, along with the maid Paquette (Karyn Quackenbush), are instructed about life by Dr. Following the Voltaire story that forms the basis of the Leonard Bernstein musical, Wager throws the hapless characters into the maelstrom of life, which whirls them down from their idealistic heights to earthy reality.Ĭandide (Paul Binotto) is foster brother to the young nobles Maximillian (Merwin Foard) and Cunegonde (Rebecca Baxter). Returning to the show he directed so triumphantly in 1983, Wager has teamed with designer Zack Brown, who has provided him with a set filled with circles: the two concentric circles that make up the playing area, the celestial globe that floats over one entrance, the gyroscope that dominates the set from above. ![]() Wager's production of "Candide" at Arena Stage is sumptuous, beautifully sung, splendidly designed and full of his hallmark visual wit.
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