"Camelot' at the Merriam

Fair Lady's weak sister

STEVE COHEN

How can I answer my young acquaintance who asked, "Why should I go to that old show?"

Maybe he’d enjoy the similarities to the sorcery in Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings– although those scenes slow Camelot down. Maybe he’d like to re-live the glorious days when (according to this production’s press release) Camelot "caught the imagination of the country and its youthful president, John F. Kennedy, and became forever entwined with the American values of social equality and justice"— although JFK himself never saw the show and would have been horrified with this version’s bumbling and forgetful depiction of King Arthur.

To be sure, the librettist Alan Jay Lerner made good (albeit preachy) points about the importance of the rule of law and the dangers of force. But Camelot’s slow story-telling is as soggy as that plain in Spain that Lerner wrote about earlier.

Nevertheless, Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe wrote a good score that’s worth hearing again. This production has a revised book by Alan Lerner’s son Michael, that deserves assessment. And the current national tour has attracted many fans who hope the show will land again on Broadway; and many of them traveled to Philly to check its progress. The Internet is buzzing with claims that Rachel York is an even better Guinevere than the original, Julie Andrews.

In short, this revival bears all the earmarks of an event. So I checked it out.

Shorter by a half-hour

The revised version is a half-hour shorter than what ran on Broadway from 1960 to 1963. Two areas, in particular, are trimmed. One is the sorcery, especially a long scene in the forest— good riddance. The other is the development of the affair between Guinevere and Lancelot— and that’s bad; it eliminates a beautiful song, "I Loved You Once in Silence."

Michael York, the distinguished English actor, looks much too old at 65. (Richard Burton was only 35 when he originated the role.) York works too hard at trying to be chipper and seems uncomfortable.

A sparkling understudy

Great performances are turned in by James Barbour as an ideal Lancelot— tall and good-looking, with a great baritone voice— and Shannon Stoeke as Mordred, Arthur’s menacing son from an earlier affair. Rachel York was sick and was replaced by understudy Shannon Warne, who amazed me with a crystalline voice in the Julie Andrews tradition. She is a beautiful brunette and displays more spunk than we normally get in Guinevere. I hope we can see more of her.

Vocal highlights are Barbour’s “C’est Moi" and "If Ever I Would Leave You," plus every note sung by Shannon Warne.

And here’s one more reason to attend. Camelot is, after all, the show that immediately followed My Fair Lady, by the same creative team. Anyone interested in theater history should experience Camelot to see how it resembles Lerner & Loewe’s towering classic, and/or how badly they fell short with their follow-up.