There are only three performances of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide at the Palais. The audience at the opening night was enraptured – rightly so – and it seems like a monumental tease that a production of this calibre is all over before more people get the chance to experience it. First produced in 1956, Candide has had a number of revisions and this production brings some clever updating to the book.
Voltaire’s novella Candide is a satire on Enlightenment values and hypocrisies, not a promising premise for music theatre. Frankly, the events and misfortunes that befall the young hero are absurd and therein lies the magic that Director Dean Bryant has conjured. Australians like dry wit and a good shaggy dog story and Bryant and the production team have infused this rambling story with just enough Aussie humour to anchor it with the audience.
Right from the get-go Candide was a cracker. Conductor Ben Northey had the overture going hell-for-leather, all Orchestra Victoria musicians, seated towards the back of the stage, enjoying the challenge of delivering the tricky rhythmic changes.
The set is fun: a decrepit old caravan that becomes all manner of backdrops to the increasingly harrowing disasters that befall Candide; props that could have been rescued from an old fun fair, or the back closets of Playschool, and zany costumes that could easily have overwhelmed lesser actors.
Eddie Perfect, as narrators Voltaire/Doctor Pangloss, never over-delivered, the ockerisms added to the script allowing the wit of the music and songs to come through. He proved he can sing lyrically too.
The cast is small and it felt like everyone gave the performances of their lives. Lyndon Watts as Candide could have stolen the show with superb singing and slinky moves, holding down the role of the naïve optimist until the very last and against all odds. Katherine Allen has the hold-your-breath role of Cunegonde – will she nail the Everest of music theatre coloratura in the song Glitter and Be Gay? She did, she did and cavorted effortlessly at the same time. Cunegonde’s progress through the story is not a pretty one and Katherine Allen made the most of every moral downfall she endures.
Maria Mercedes and Euan Fistrovic Doidge as the Old Lady and Maximillian respectively grew their characters right to the end. Neither have deep roles – the Old Lady is a fading old jade taking the low road to oblivion and Maximillian, a narcissist, taking a high road to extreme camp. They somehow managed to convey a sense of character development even so.
It all shouldn’t work as music theatre – too complex, the music too operatic. What made it work was the way the entire cast sustained their roles through every absurd change of plot. Even “minor” characters such as Melaine Bird (as the delightfully slutty Paquette) and Eddie Muliaumaseali’i (as Cacambo the only “wise” character) kept the energy in their roles, as did the tenors Troy Sussman and Alexander Lewis in multiple roles. You felt all the characters were present, even when offstage, and it was always a treat when any of them returned. It’s not fair to single out any one performer, however Eddie Muliaumaseali’i has the most delicious bass voice. He also has a line that encapsulates this production beautifully. Cacambo says (quoting from memory here): “I’m one quarter Italian, one quarter, Spanish, one quarter German and one quarter French”. Turning to the audience, Cacambo/Eddie added: “and 100% Samoan”. These touches made the show zing.
What else made the show zing? The singing couldn’t be faulted, the orchestra powered through, the lighting and sound were on point and the chorus were given real “stuff” to do onstage and in the background. This was ensemble work at its finest and a credit to the magic of Bernstein’s score and the book (by many writers including Sondheim, apparently).
By the ending, all the characters are reconciled to a simple life in the final song Make Our Garden Grow. Everyone has grown wiser and somewhat sadder, but no longer burdened by the maxim that “this is the best of all possible worlds”. The final number takes us back to the reality that we are not purely good or bad and we all do the best we know. I guess that is one of the messages of Candide – the best we “know” – and if our knowledge of the world is slim, there is fat chance we can do very well. In a way it’s a bit of downbeat ending, but it is effective in dousing the manic energy that has been coursing through the whole show. Everyone is on stage at the end in a full-throated chorus that reminds us that, with Bernstein’s Candide, ultimately, it’s about the music.
Photo credit: Charlie Kinross
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Nicholas Tolhurst reviewed Victorian Opera’s production of “Candide”, presented at the Palais Theatre, St Kilda on February 10, 2024.
