In the golden age of Broadway musicals, shows were written in a matter of months, shaken out in a couple of weeks of out-of-town tryouts, then opened in New York. These days, with production costs and ticket prices as high as a Times Square skyscraper, both producers and theatergoers are understandably wary of new, unproven material. So it’s much more likely that a new musical will premiere in a small regional theater than in a Broadway house, and only after years of development. A case in point is "The Game," which debuted in August 2003 at the Barrington Stage Company in the Berkshires of Massachusetts.
"The Game" is based on "Les Liaisons Dangereuse," the scandalous epistolary novel written in 1782 by Choderlos de Laclos. It’s a racy commentary on the depravities of the French nobility in the decadent last days of the Ancient Regime. With nothing to do but swan around the court of Louis XVI in extravagant getups, they relieved the boredom with sex, intrigues and, especially, sexual intrigues. The book has previously been adapted as a straight play and two movies. Now it’s a full-scale musical.
According to director Julianne Boyd, composer Megan Cavallari and librettists Amy Powers and David Topchik have been working on this show for nine years. The production at Barrington Stage received a scant three weeks of rehearsal -- about par for summer theater -- but it’s sharp and effective. Ironically, it’s the material that still needs some work.
While almost everyone in the piece is playing some kind of game, the two main partners in intrigue are the Marquise de Merteuil, a very merry widow, and the Vicomte de Valmont, the most notorious lady killer in the kingdom. They are former lovers in whom a mutual passion still flames. But right now their cravings have other objects. Valmont has his sights on the virtuous Mme. de Tourvel. Merteuil’s lust is for revenge against a lord who slighted her, and she sics Valmont on Cecile, the man’s virginal fiancée, aiming to humiliate him by ruining her.
Sara Ramirez has a delicious voice and a luminous stage presence. She makes both sides of Merteuil -- schemer and voluptuary -- completely fascinating. Christopher Innvar is suitably snakelike as the charming, ruthless Valmont, but his performance is hampered by the trouble he has sustaining a note without going flat.
Cecile, the young innocent, is in love with her callow music teacher, and these two roles have been cast as the comic relief. Cecile is a society novice, still learning the intricate gavotte of courtly ritual, and in Cristen Boyle’s performance, she’s almost clownlike in her clumsy naiveté. As Valmont’s other would-be conquest, Mme. de Tourvel, Heather Ayers makes it easy to see why Valmont is so turned on by her impenetrable chastity.
Fabio Toblini’s costumes are a sumptuary of silk and lace. The women’s bodices are designed to show off -- or create -- cleavage, and the wide bustles at each hip turn their skirts into tressles. Perhaps for budgetary reasons, the grandiose powdered wigs that were the hallmark of fashion in the era are missing, replaced by fancy hairdos and feathered hats. There’s also authentic period dancing, choreographed by Jan Leys, and Michael Anania’s spare setting -- plush draperies framing empty space -- artfully reflects the play’s critique of material opulence amid moral poverty.
"The Game" uses not a standard pit band but a five-piece chamber orchestra, including harpsichord. The music hints at the Baroque style of the period, while also betraying the pervasive influence Sondheim has had in the modern era. The first act is an object lesson in musical theater. Every song moves the plot, provides exposition, develops characters. Until the very end of the act there’s not one solo -- the musical numbers are all conversations -- duets, trios, and ensemble numbers. One of these whole-company pieces amusingly depicts an evening at the Paris Opera, complete with a nice parody of operatic conventions.
"The Game" is playful, tuneful and thought-provoking. There’s some contemporary relevance in this tale of predatory creatures who see the world as a game board on which to gratify their own desires. The show may not be quite ready for Broadway, but it’s an intelligent, seductive contribution to the musical stage.
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