Review: New Musical Copperfield! Needs a Little More Twist

There are a fair number of high-profile musicals running off-Broadway this month. Todrick Hall’s MIDNIGHT and Duncan Sheik’s Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen recently opened, and the Olivier-winning Curious Case of Benjamin Button will do so this week as well at the Public.

While not as headline-grabbing, Copperfield! has also joined this unusually busy month of tuners. With a book and traditional score by Jeffrey Scharf (Sonny Paladino orchestrates), Copperfield! has a lot going for it. But despite a strong cast, led by Bobby Conte (A Bronx Tale, Company) in the title role, bringing Dickens’s massive bildungsroman to life proves no easy task.

Whether it will be the hero of its own run, the coming weeks will show. It has the same big challenge faced by Guildford Shakespeare Company’s play version, which ran off-Broadway in June—namely, how do you translate a big character-driven novel into a stage production with enough action to fill two and a half hours?

Director and choreographer Gabriel Barre struggles with that last question despite the unflagging energy of the ensemble, which, like Benjamin Button, gives audiences that rare treat of watching performers who not only sing, dance, and act, but also play at least one instrument as part of the show’s band.

Unfortunately, that energy doesn’t always translate to the story, which revolves around young David Copperfield (a plucky Calvin Knegten at the performance I attended), doted over by his mother (Cathryn Wake) and servant Peggotty (a hilarious Amelia Cormack) while enduring physical abuse from his stepfather, Mr. Murdstone (Will Reynolds). David is shipped off to boarding school, where he meets the dashing Steerforth (Owen Squire Smith), and is later forced into child labor in London.

Aunt Betsey (Kara Mikula) saves him from that horror, and David sets himself on a path toward becoming a writer, along the way falling in love with Dora (Wake), befriending the insolvent Mr. Micawber (Andy Taylor), and dealing with the unscrupulous Uriah Heep (Reynolds).

Copperfield! doesn’t have the forward momentum that gave spirit to that other, more successful Dickens adaptation, Lionel Bart’s Oliver! In Copperfield!, things begin on a punchy note with “Betsey Trotwood Copperfield / It’s a Boy,” which quickly establishes Mikula as one of the show’s primal energies. But slow pacing bedevils the first act with ballads such as “Darling Boy.” Just as the kite has gotten into the air, we lose the wind.

Saving that kite from a lightning strike is Tatiana Wechsler, who plays Jane Murdstone in the first act and Agnes Wickfield in the second. Channeling Almira Gulch as Mr. Murdstone’s wickedly child-hating sister, Wechsler brings humor and sheer brilliance to a small role before completely altering her demeanor and vocal stylings to transform into the gentle and patient Agnes. It’s a marvelous performance to remember come awards time.

Others in the cast stand out too. Aaron Michael Ray gets laughs as the odd Mr. Dick, and Smith shines in the sea shanty “I Am a Rover.” Nancy O’Connor, less confident as an actor playing Em’ly, shows her real talent is at the keyboard (she is also the show’s conductor). Knegten, who alternates the role Young David with Henry Witcher, also enchants with his mop of curly hair, cheeky smile, and charming voice in “Mr. Creakle Is a Tartar.”

Conte, who narrates for much of the first half, shows off his classical vocals in the second in “Under Your Wing” and “Help Me to Forget,” but it’s in Act 2 that the show strains again as it tries to plow through hundreds of pages to tie up loose plot points and introduce new ones, not least of which is the character of Uriah Heep, played by Reynolds without the requisite Gollum-like villainy.

But sound designer Shannon Slaton at least makes it all sound good, using Edward Pierce’s dual-level set to spread out the actor-musicians so that the lyrics ring loud and clear. Jen Caprio’s period costumes blend seamlessly into the characters’ personalities, with a blousy dress for Peggotty and an appropriately constricting suit for Uriah. Jeff Croiter’s lighting enhances the story as well, with jarring flashes of red when Mr. Murdstone takes a riding crop to David. Despite its pacing problems, Copperfield! will likely delight Dickens fans and create some new ones, but it only partly fulfills its great expectations.