Candide, at Huntington Theatre Company this fall, is amazing. Amazing. AMAZING!  I have not gone to a more visually stunning and musically moving show in a long while. Candide runs through October 16th as the kickoff to Huntington’s 30th Anniversary Season. Huntington welcomes a production that is clearly part remount, part newly produced, bringing several Chicago artists to Boston – most notably Mary Zimmerman and Doug Peck, from the show’s previous run at the Goodman Theatre.

Mary Zimmerman, directing and re-imagining this original Voltaire adaptation with music by Leonard Bernstein and others, proves once again why she won a Tony for Metamorphoses and why she has been officially described as a Genius, winning the MacArthur Fellowship years ago. Peck, the Joseph Jefferson Award winning Music Director, brings the Bernstein music to life with a passion and force that many musicians envy – or should!

Candide follows the life of the naïve young man, removed from his home of wealth for his romantic entanglements with his cousin. In his travels, he experiences the funny, the serious and also the horrifying world of war, religion, sex and power in Europe through the heavy-handed philosophical eye of the original author, Voltaire (d. 1778).

The production design of Candide is stunning. Utilizing a deep stage space and projections, the space is at one moment a small classroom space, then an empty ballroom, then the dirty streets of several European cities in progression.  Daniel Ostling’s set design, moving seamlessly and speedily through time and space with more than a few stunning reveals, is beautiful. Opening with a series of simple projections, the audience is tricked into a calm expectation for the design of this opera. In the first scene, the attention to the color palette is breathtaking.  This first moment takes place far downstage in a small study populated by aristocrats within a comparatively simple set – desk; chairs; hand-props – then, in a moment as Candide himself is shunned from the palace after a brief moment of sexual impropriety – the stage is bare and wooden, giving a stark look into the emptiness behind the beauty of the aristocratic life.

Like most of Zimmerman’s re-creations of classic tales, this production is not short on spectacle, visual assault and surprise, and unexpected vocal, physical and emotive choices. Each and every actor is put through their paces with the physical and vocal demands of this production.  I would love to be backstage to see the movement choreography that surely must have developed to keep the onstage world so quickly transforming.  Though Zimmerman’s tale provides spectacle, it is not ever for spectacle’s sake. Her use of visually moving stimulus, and unique movement and vocal direction, is always at the service of the story and the audience. Candide is no exception to this practice.

Doug Peck’s musical direction of the music by Bernstein and others is transformative. At intermission, I overheard several conversations from patrons that this was the most exciting opera they had been to in years – undoubtedly due to Peck’s brave musical choices and interpretation of this great piece. The young musical director, already with four Joseph Jefferson Awards under his belt, should hands-down be considered for any and every award Boston has to offer. Peck has been considered the “musical wonderkind” of Chicago for almost a decade(1), and hearing this production of Candide, one has to hope that he will grace Boston again with his brave musical prowess.

This review would be remiss if I did not compliment the amazing fusion of casting. The cast of Candide brings together some of Chicago’s best with some of Boston’s best actors. Erik Lochtefeld* is hilarious as the vain Maxmillian; Lauren Molina’s entire performance rivots – particularly her vocal power; and Jeoff Packard carries the show with strength, focus, and more than a few moment of physical hilarity.  Kudos to the ensemble and to the production team for bringing them all together!

1. See “Chicago Theatre Addict,” chitheatreaddict.com.

 

Members of the cast of the Huntington Theatre Company’s CANDIDE. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.