Weather 
From perfect weather to ideals of peace and justice, the mythical era of “Camelot” represents many of humanity’s highest and deepest aspirations. No wonder the perennially popular Lerner & Loewe musical (based on the legend of King Arthur in T.H. White’s 1958 novel, “The Once and Future King”) won four Tonys at its Broadway debut in 1960. The show followed book writer and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and music composer Frederick Loewe’s earlier smash hit, “My Fair Lady.” It also featured superstars Richard Burton and Julie Andrews, as Arthur and Guenevere, and Robert Goulet’s first Broadway role, as Lancelot.
Despite plenty of personal and medical challenges for team Lerner & Loewe at the time, the show “must” and did go on – through decades of adaptations, four Broadway revivals (the latest featuring a revised book by Aaron Sorkin in 2023) and the popular 1967 film. While one doesn’t mess with music and songs that have become an integral part of the American songbook – containing lyrics we all know and love – the storyline was often shortened (the Toronto premiere ran four-and-half hours!), scenes rearranged, and has been presented through differing directorial lenses over the years.
In some ways, The Wick Theatre’s current production of CAMELOT, which runs through April 12, follows the musical’s original timeline of coming right after their company’s immensely popular production of Lerner & Loewe’s “My Fair Lady.” The Wick’s “Camelot” also features three superstars (alongside superstars in secondary roles) – Alex Martinez as Arthur, Allyson Rosenblum as Guenevere, and Jesse Luttrell as Lancelot. (If these names sound familiar, Alex and Allyson are locals who’ve impressed us many times, including at The Wick, where Alex appeared as Perchik in “Fiddler” and Allyson as Eliza in “My Fair Lady.” Active New Yorker Jesse starred locally as El Gallo/Narrator in “The Fantasticks” twice – recently at The Wick, and earlier in Island City Stage’s LGBTQ adaptation.)
Pasquantonio.
But through the eyes of ideal director, Norb Joerder – who couldn’t be more experienced, in general, and with this show, in particular – The Wick’s “Camelot” presents a reimagined boisterous, sensitive, and emotional (while still often humorous) take on the musical that hearkens back to its roots, while showcasing the unique talents of its stupendous cast. As Joerder states in the program’s Director’s Note:
“I have been associated with this musical for over 45 years in various positions – from the 1980 Broadway revival, where I was a dancing knight, to the 1993 Broadway revival where I served as director and choreographer…. Over the years, it has been revived, reworked, and rewritten. For this production, I have gone back to the original script and approached it as a magical fairytale and love story.”
As soon as the music starts and starlit curtain rises, we’re immersed in chants of a bygone era and a fantastical stage. Suddenly Arthur makes a powerful entrance on a hilltop of the magical forest. But then there are bouts of self-doubt and calls to the booming voice of departed wizard Merlin, his lifetime mentor, for advice. In all, Alex Martinez’s superbly emotional, conflicted, and inadvertently often-comical portrayal of King Arthur immediately grabs our attention and lifts us into his legendary world.
Where a story described by executive managing producer Marilyn A. Wick as “more than just a musical; it’s a reflection of our highest aspirations and the beautiful, tragic reality of the human heart” unfolds. Love triangles and the impossibility of denying what the heart wants, is a storyline as old as the Bible and Homer’s Ancient Greece. Where despite intervals of peace and the rule of law proclaiming “might for right” (vs. more typical “might is right”), ultimately men find it impossible to control both their lust and aggressive instincts … so battles arise and civilizations fall, often over the love of a woman.
And it’s the women (guilty or not) who can’t fight back that are convicted to “burn at the stake.” Sometimes I wonder if our country, and much of the world, is heading toward the end of Camelot times and if there will be anyone left alive to recall the shining moments of the Kennedy era and humanitarian accomplishments of more recent decades. It’s how “Camelot” ends that’s bringing on all this angst. But for now, let’s go back to the beginning and meet our much-needed escape valve. Or as Joerder concludes in his Director’s Note: “Sit back and enjoy this enchanted musical from the past.”
Act One. Arthur, as a nervous bridegroom, regales us with heightened royal pre-wedding jitters as he imagines his subjects thinking “I Wonder What the King Is Doing Tonight.” While the people imagine regal preparations, Arthur admits that “a king who fought a dragon goes to be wed in terror and distress!” Here, Alex Martinez’s comic chops are on full display. And we can’t help but sympathize with the young king who is duty-bound by a politically arranged marriage to avert a war, and forced to wed a woman he knows nothing about, not even if she’s pretty. Of course, “He’s wishing he were in in Scotland fishing tonight.” As for expected sublime anticipation, self-reflective Arthur announces, instead, “He’s numb! He shakes! He Quailes! He quakes!”
And then Arthur hides behind the forest’s large, enchanted tree where he suddenly spots, and is instantly smitten, by the beauteous vision of Lady Guenevere who’d ditched her entourage for a few moments alone – where she, too, can lament her royal, duty-bound fate. We’re instantly smitten, as well, by Allyson Rosenblum as Guenevere’s lush soprano voice she regales us with, “Where Are the Simple Joys of Maidenhood?” We get a first inkling of her defiance and spunk when she threatens to pray to someone other than her patron St. Genevieve who’d abandoned her to be “bid and bargained for like beads at a bazaar.”
It’s ironic that in wishing for the commoner’s “simple joys of adoring, daring boys,” she cites scenarios restricted to nobility. Such as, “Shall I not be on a pedestal, Worshipped and competed for? Not be carried off, or better still, Cause a little war?” The latter would be fulfilled, all too painfully, in her future. But for now, the Wick audience absolutely delights in the couple’s stunning voices culminating in first Arthur, and then Guenevere’s, resounding rendition of the iconic title track, “Camelot.”
Guenevere’s more than ready, and somewhat licentiously pushy in wishing to escape with shy, respectful commoner “Wart” (the childhood nickname Arthur provides) as he can’t help but counter her disdain for his beloved kingdom by glorifying its magical climate. Where “Winter is forbidden till December and summer lingers through September.” She’s soon won over and joins him in singing Camelot’s praises, concluding “In short, there’s simply not, A more congenial spot, For happily-ever-aftering than here, In Camelot.”
When Arthur’s men arrive and bow before their king, his identity is revealed (along with how this humble, ordinary fellow literally stumbled upon the throne by unknowingly extracting the Excalibur sword designed to identify Camelot’s future monarch). After this eventful period of revelations, both Arthur and Guenevere are happy to wed. And their audience is oh-so-happy to not only be impressed by Kimberly Wick and Ann Cadaret’s magical production design, lighting design by Clifford Spulock, fantasy projection designs by Josieu Jean and Kacey Koploff, Bobby Peaco’s music direction accompanying choreography by Madeline Dunn and fight choreography by Julian Perez (what’s a medieval story without bouts of swordplay?). But mostly by the outstanding acting and vocals of these two leads in their opening numbers that we love so well.
I got a charge out of finally being able to place where so many of the musical’s iconic songs appear within the story. When third lead, rather boorish and snobbish Lancelot du Lac, played by powerful baritone (though his voice teacher claims Jesse Luttrell’s “big voice” is actually a Heldentenor that sounds like a baritone) appears in his first “C’est Moi” number, I could see the audience sit up straight in wonder. There was no question of Luttrell’s dominating iconic “If Ever I Would Leave You” in Act Two.
Another absolutely stunning vocal contribution was Aaron Bower as Nimue and her enchanting rendition of “Follow Me,” where she appears as a water nymph whose siren song causes Merlin’s future memories to fade as she lures him to his final rest. (Bower also plays Lady Anne, a lady-in-waiting who warns Guenevere there’s gossip about her and Lancelot.) I’d definitely support Bower’s breathtaking performance as Nimue for winning a Carbonell at last!
As Merlin leaves this world, he can’t remember if he’d warned Arthur (whom he’d taught acceptance and understanding of “the other” by turning him into various forest animals) about Lancelot, and his treacherous illegitimate son Mordred, played with selfish evil intent by Elliot Mahon. No wonder Mahon’s featured song is a tongue-in-cheek satire called “The Seven Deadly Virtues.”
Longtime professional touring actor Mark Fishback, in his Wick Theatre debut, is a powerful addition to the cast in both his early role as wizard Merlin – whose voice still booms when summoned from the afterlife by his protege Arthur. And later, as aging, lost and wandering King Pellinore who becomes a constant court presence. Pellinore offers comic relief by humorously spouting the views of older, set-in-their-ways folk who can’t seem to comprehend egalitarian round-table justice; nonetheless he loves and vehemently defends the king he’d known since he was a boy. Arthur is thrilled to reunite with his old family friend whom Guenevere had kindly invited him to spend the night in a comfy bed when he’d first wandered into the town’s Mayday Celebrations, and enthusiastic Company dance number, “The Lusty Month of May.”
A few more classic numbers that are show highlights include Arthur’s frustration with Guenevere not abiding by his wishes in, “How to Handle a Woman” (a song many husbands might relate to). The answer is: “To love her … simply love her…”
And it’s great fun watching the royal couple’s attempts at cheering up in “What Do the Simple Folk Do”… when they’re blue – from whistling, singing, to a fiery swirling dance. Still, the agony of resisting a great forbidden love can’t help but move us, especially when Guenevere admits her feelings to Lancelot in their final moments together with, “I Loved You Once in Silence” … before all hell breaks loose.
The days of chivalry, kindness, and social justice may be over in Camelot, for now, but we’re left with evidence of the story and the legend as relayed through generations. In the final scene, King Arthur knights a starry-eyed youngster, Tom of Warwick (alternately performed by Nate Colton or Zoey Madden), who’d traveled from afar to join the Knights of the Round Table. Arthur instructs him to run and escape the battlefield so he can live to share Camelot’s vision. And our being here is evidence of his success!
You too can spend a few entrancing hours lost in the magical, mystical, and majestically reimagined musical world of CAMELOT as presented by The Wick Theatre and Costume Museum, 7901 North Federal Highway, Boca Raton 33487. For tickets, visit www.thewick.org or call the box office at 561-995-2333. Playing only through April 12.
The post The Wick Brings Back All the Magic of ‘CAMELOT’ via Incredible Vocals and a Glorious, Passionate, and Whimsically Witty Production appeared on South Florida Theater.
