City Theater has been utilizing a tiny space in a neighborhood of warehouses and earning respect -- even while the size of its audiences has been small compared to older Wilmington venues. But this company should get a lot more recognition as it moves into a new home on the same downtown block as Wilmington's prestigious Grand Opera House. Led by the youthful Jon Cooper, Michael Gray and Tom Shade, the company makes a great impression with its final production before the move. The eminence of Michael John LaChiusa, who had two New York premieres last season with Marie Christine and The Wild Party, inspired the company to revive LaChiusa's 1994 musical, Hello Again. Within a cramped space, the company sets a mood and maintains dramatic intensity throughout this fascinating musical.
Hello Again uses the La Ronde idea of a succession of lovers meeting one another in differing situations. (That is: A beds B, B then sleeps with C, C does it with D, round and round, until the first and last characters meet at the end.) LaChiusa lifted the structure to a delightful level of sophistication by having the couplings take place in different decades. And, beyond that, by having couples from an earlier period sing and speak with an awareness of what's going to occur between couples in the future. This provides a dramatic universality and, at the same time, gives the composer a chance to write in the musical styles of differing periods. LaChiusa's approach is humorous and romantic and different from either of his recent shows (more colloquial and accessible than Marie Christine, not as dark and dramatic as The Wild Party). Especially comical is a bondage scene involving a nurse and the son of her invalid employer. Another comic highlight is a seduction aboard the Titanic.
The original New York production used some double casting, which saved salaries and also magnified the similarities between couples of differing time periods. But director Gray chooses to use a larger cast and it works. The impression is heightened that the more faces change, the more some things don't change.
