Los Angeles Opera’s revival of Wonderful Town is a winner in every respect, despite it being a concert performance and not a full production. But thanks to David Lee’s direction, Leonard Bernstein’s dynamic score, Comden & Green’s witty lyrics, and the cast’s inspired performances, the evening can only be described as a triumph. First produced on Broadway in 1953, Wonderful Town received ecstatic notices, especially from the Times’s Brooks Atkinson, who called it “the most original and audacious musical we have had since Guys and Dolls.” The show had a long run and was televised, live, on CBS in 1958, but it has been staged only sporadically since then, with a lone Broadway revival in 2003. With its text having been stripped down by Lee, LA Opera’s production of Wonderful Town trots along, with Roger Bart handling the intros and setting up each scene, in addition to playing nine different parts. The lead performers, though, are Faith Prince as Ruth and Nikki M. James as the femme fatale, Eileen. Both light up the stage, especially when being funny or delivering such nifty songs as “Ohio,” “A Little Bit in Love,” “Swing” and “It’s Love.” Backed up by Bernstein’s vivid, pulsating music, Prince and James make you believe that they are two mid-west sisters trying to make it in New York, circa 1935. That it is the middle of the Depression does not figure in the story, which owes more to Damon Runyon than to Sinclair Lewis. Hana S. Kim’s colorful, jaunty video projections also help to create the soft-edged romantic-comedy world. Grant Gershon, an L.A. Opera stalwart, conducts the orchestra and chorus (and at play’s end, leads a conga line, as well); Peggy Hickey has choreographed the small but effective troupe of dancers.
