By: David de Young
 |
| Adena Brumer in The Juliet Letters - publicity photo |
The Theatrical Music Company’s production of Elvis Costello and The Brodsky Quartet’s The Juliet Letters opened Thursday at The Southern Theater in Minneapolis, and anyone professing to be a Costello fan (he’s just Elvis, to many of us) should have had their ears perk up already at the title of his 1992 Warner Brothers release. The Juliet Letters is a 20-song album featuring some of Costello’s most memorable recordings of the past 20 years. Billed as “A Song Sequence for String Quartet and Voice,” the album’s liner notes devote only one short paragraph to a newspaper article about a professor who took it upon himself to reply to letters sent to “Juliet Capulet” in Verona, Italy. It’s already a fascinating premise, made even more interesting by the prospect that people might actually be writing to “an imaginary woman, and a dead imaginary woman at that.”
The Juliet Letters as staged by the TMC is produced and music directed by Jake Endres, and directed by Gary Briggle who also plays one of the four starring roles. Filling out the four-person cast are Michelle Barber, Adena Brumer and Doug Scholz-Carlson. Sharing in this production - as opposed to simply providing the live music is - the “Juliet Quartet” of Lindsey Bordner and Hannah Murray (violin) [Twin Cities rock fans may recognize Murray as a member of Themes and A Whisper in the Noise], Tim Brock (viola), and Geoffrey Anderson (cello). As a way of further including the musicians, Barber at one point even interacted with the string quartet, saying, “You sound lovely” and at another point flipping the pages of the violinists musical scores.
As the play opens, we see a set literally strewn with letters. At the rear of the stage is the tomb of the fictional Juliet, who has in death become a sort of Jim Morrison type character, her grave site in Verona becoming a pilgrimage destination for tourists and young lovers. The action of the play – technically there’s no real plot, just a an amalgamation of scenes – unfolds as the principle characters read letters to Juliet and intersperse them with songs from the Costello/Brodsky original score. Two additional songs are added for this production, "The Futility of Hate” and “Aaina & Divya,” both with music by Endres, but here’s another part of the magic: All the text is comprised of actual letters to Juliet as they appear in the book Letters to Juliet: Celebrating Shakespeare's Greatest Heroine, the Magical City of Verona, and the Power of Love by Lise Friedman & Ceil Friedman. Actual letters! Many of which were answered by the also very real Juliet Club (yup, they even have a website) for more than 70 years.
These letters are variously by soldiers in Vietnam, school girls from Iowa City and lesbians from India. The balance of the text from the show comes from Shakespeare’s plays. Endres told me after the show that some of the ideas for the action also came the Costello/BSQ original score – such information is not included in the album’s liner notes.
Though occasionally the actors had to work to be heard above the string quartet, for the most part I had no trouble hearing everything despite the show being presented with no amplification. The lack of any amplification also added to the warmth of the music in the space. (The Southern by the way, with its faux-ruin proscenium, was a perfect location for this premier.)
As an audience member, I got lost in the songs I was already familiar with and enjoyed eavesdropping on the well-chosen letters from the lovelorn. As I did so, Juliet underwent an apotheosis inside my mind that even Shakespeare never gave her. But really, should it seem any more surprising that people might write to Juliet than to Santa Claus as they did in the film Miracle on 44th Street? Endres says The Juliet Letters is “more about our need for Juliet” than about her or the letters themselves. To me, it serves as a reminder that fictions are often the most real and important parts of our universe.
For Costello fans and Shakespeare fans alike, this is must-see musical theater, and this show has what it takes to be presented to a much wider audience in the near future. Endres, by the way, tells me he has been in touch Costello, and though there were no Elvis sightings at the Southern Thursday night, I understand he has bestowed his full blessing on the production.
The Juliet Lettters runs September 11-21 at The Southern Theater. Tickets from http://www.southerntheater.org or call 612-340-1725.
Location Info:
Southern Theater
Artist Info: The Theatrical Music Company
Share this story:
Article comments powered by Disqus
