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Pared-down Camelot retains pageantry

If any major musical stands to benefit from the concert or semi-staged treatment, it is Camelot. With its lush, magnificently melodic score, it’s no wonder Camelot reigned as one of Broadway’s most ambitious and popular shows.
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Soprano Rachel Fenlon rehearses with director-choreographer Jacques Lemay. ÒIn a setting like this, you want to make sure the movement and story flows, with all the characters and interaction still there,Ó Lemay says.

If any major musical stands to benefit from the concert or semi-staged treatment, it is Camelot.

With its lush, magnificently melodic score, it’s no wonder Camelot reigned as one of Broadway’s most ambitious and popular shows. It has theatrical romanticism, eye-filling costumes and pageantry. The fanciful Lerner and Loewe musical was inspired by T.H. White’s Arthurian novel The Once and Future King.

The sprawling musical chronicling the challenges facing King Arthur and the chivalrous knights of the Round Table has always been hampered by its three-hour length and clunky script.

The Tony Award-winning musical’s 41Ú2-hour pre-Broadway tryout in 1960 was “longer than [Wagner’s] Gotterdammerung … and not nearly as funny,” Noel Coward reportedly quipped.

It’s the opposite of what audiences can expect from Camelot in Concert, this weekend’s Victoria Symphony/Pacific Opera Victoria co-production at the Royal Theatre.

“We’ve cut 36 pages of script,” said Jacques Lemay, who directed and choreographed the “hybrid version” of the beloved musical. It’s packed with such glorious classics as I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight, What Do the Simple Folks Do?, How To Handle a Woman and If Ever I Would Leave You.

The sense of passion, pageantry and betrayal so integral to this theatrical colossus will remain intact, said Lemay, with both cast and orchestra, conducted by Giuseppe Pietraroia, on stage.

The production stars David Ludwig, the baritone whose credits included national tours of The Phantom of the Opera and Titanic, as Arthur; soprano Rachel Fenlon (POV’s Falstaff), as Guenevere; and Aaron St. Clair Nicholson (Metropolitan Opera’s La Boheme) as Lancelot.

Camelot also features: Benedict Campbell as mystical Merlin; Wes Tritter as eccentric King Pellinore; and Tyler Fitzgerald as Mordred, Arthur’s malevolent illegitimate son. The supporting cast includes Ajay Parikh and Tom Mallory, and members of the Pacific Opera Victoria chorus.

“In a setting like this, you want to make sure the movement and story flows, with all the characters and interaction still there,” Lemay said. “I came up with a concept that will feature the orchestra and let us move the actors and singers around the full symphony onstage. There will definitely be an indication of the traditional pageantry, and the beauty of this.”

While the principals will be fully costumed, the chorus will be dressed in black, with relevant accessories, he said. “I think we’ve managed to do it quite well,” said Lemay, for whom Camelot, with its mythical story, characters and locales, was a challenging departure.

His creative use of limited space and the lack of traditional scenic aspects was partially inspired by a production he saw at London’s Barbican Theatre years ago, he said. “There was just a grey box with upstage sidewalls and the floor. All the actors were in contemporary business suits and there was a skull and dagger and that was it,” he recalled. “I got it.”

Camelot in Concert’s scenic design is by Marshall McMahen, with lighting design by Rebekah Johnson.

Such minimalism is world’s away from the lavish, busy backdrops characterizing many of the musicals, operas, ballets, television specials and mega-projects such as the 1988 Calgary Olympics and 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games opening ceremonies he has staged.

“The audience can get overwhelmed by the visuals and by the time you’ve drunk that all in, you might have missed some of the nuances,” said Lemay, who also staged South Pacific, last year’s inaugural musical-theatre collaboration.

In addition to dialogue, incidental music used during costume and scene changes has also been pared.

Aside from striking the perfect balance between singers and orchestra, with a bigger string section, conductor Pietraroia’s biggest challenge is that much of the singers’ action occurs behind him. “I like to have visual contact with the singers,” he said. “Singers are used to watching monitors on the side, but there will be a monitor in the pit where I normally would be.”

The nice thing about having the musicians on stage is that “they really feel part of the whole production,” he said. “Camelot is probably closest to the more operatic of musical-theatre. You have to have certain musical training to sing the lead roles, and the acting abilities.”

While Pietraroia has conducted pop concerts and medleys featuring music from Camelot, this marks the first time he’s conducting the entire production.

“The music is wonderful and this has some harmonious sections where you really have to get them into your ear,” he said. “It’s written in a style that’s very melodic and also very dramatic.”

mreid@timescolonist.com

What: Camelot in Concert

Where: Royal Theatre, 805 Broughton St.

When: Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30 p.m.

Tickets: $40-$90

Reservations: 250-386-6121, rmts.bc.ca