The play is based on the series of infamous master classes that world famous opera star Maria Callas gave in the early 1970's at Julliard several years after she stopped performing. At these classes, Callas would listen to and critique aspiring artists. McNally came up with the brilliant theatrical conceit for his play to have the audience be the audience at the master class, thus allowing Callas to interact with us and to share her thoughts, feelings and stories in a very direct way. McNally also uses the arias that the "victims," as Callas humorously calls the students, sing to bring back memories to Callas, thus allowing flashbacks into Callas' past that impacted her life and career. The music also allows Callas to become the characters in the songs in order to show the student's how they should be connecting to the music. The combination of these elements elevates Master Class into an excellent play about the human spirit, sheer determination and the craft and nature of art. Fifteen years after first being on Broadway, the play still holds up beautifully today.
The original Broadway cast won Tony's for Zoe Caldwell as Callas and Audra McDonald as one of the students. The Broadway revival has Tyne Daly as Callas with Sierra Boggess in the part McDonald played. They and the rest of the cast are excellent in their parts and this revival is one that can stand head and shoulders with the original production. As I mentioned above, last night's performance was the first preview and with only one slight hiccup you would think that this cast has been performing this play for a long time.
McNally has written the part of Callas to be one of many emotions and traits, many of them somewhat contradictory which actually makes the character more realistic. She can be mean with her criticism, or is she just being upfront and direct? She is a tiger with her ferocity but can also be reduced to a delicate flower with the pain of her memories. McNally has wisely chosen to portray Callas as one with a witty sense of humor, with lines like "People are forgetting how to listen. If you can't hear me, it's your fault." The humor makes Callas seem real and allows us to easily connect with her. Thus when she says things like "how can you have rivals when no one can do what you can do?" or when she reduces a student to tears, it isn't as off putting as if you hadn't seen her lighter side before. Callas is a person who is impatient with anything that is less than brilliant and she lets her students know it but with Daly's portrayal it isn't as harsh as has been portrayed before.
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| From left: Sorenson, Cohen, Daly, Boggess, Silber and Brandhagen |
Stephen Wadsworth has directed the production beautifully, his staging not only allows Daly to move about the space just as you'd imagine that Callas did when listening and instructing the students but also shifts expertly between the class room scenes and the flashbacks. He has also assembled a great cast to support Daly. Alexandra Silber is the first "victim" and she perfectly demonstrates the student who is in awe of Callas and seeks her advice but isn't as prepared as she should be. She is completely flustered as well but listens to everything Callas tells her and her performance perfectly demonstrates how someone who listens can grow from what they've been told. Garrett Sorenson is the tenor who even though he is a little too cocky for Callas manages to stir emotions in her she had forgotten she had. He also has an excellent voice. Sierra Boggess is the final student who, even though her first encounter with Callas made her run off the stage to throw up, returns with a ferocity that matches Callas' and is a firecracker that challenges and completely holds her own with Callas. She is also given some of the best dialogue and has a more fleshed out character then the other students and she can sing beautifully as well, something that might just raise a possible hint of jealousy in Callas . While Sorenson is a trained opera singer, Silber and Boggess aren't, but they completely hold their own with the opera arias, not only singing but speaking in Italian as well.
Jeremy Cohen is Manny the accompanist, and he perfectly plays the part of someone who is honored to be in the presence of someone as great as Callas. He also plays beautifully. Clinton Brandhagen is the stagehand who couldn't care less about Callas being in the room, he has a job to do and her requirements only get in the way of him finishing his job. He has very few lines to say and is the only person who Callas can't control or scare. Daly, Silber, Cohen and Brandhagen all appeared in the Spring of 2010 in a production of the play that Wadsworth directed at the Kennedy Center in D.C.
The only hiccup in last night's first preview was when Daly asked for a line about 5 minutes into the first act. I thought we might be in trouble for the rest of the show after this happened but once she was given the line she dove right back into the part and never let up for the next two hours.
This is the fourth production of the show I've seen and the fifth actress I've seen play the role of Callas. I saw Zoe Caldwell and Patti LuPone in the Broadway production, Maria Tucci at the George Street Playhouse and Barbara Walsh at Paper Mill. All of these productions were, naturally, somewhat different in their sets and costumes, but the part of Callas was delivered by all five of these ladies expertly. But, as much as I loved Caldwell in the original cast, there is just something about Daly in not only her delivery, but her presence and combination of warmth and directness that have put her at the top of my list of Maria Callas's.
The 2011-2012 season is off to a very good start!
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