High-Profile Tuner Zhivago Faces CA Critics

Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago has been turned into a stage musical. That's right, the epic novel is now a tuner, entitled Zhivago, with book by Michael Weller, music by Lucy Simon and lyrics by Michael Korie and Amy Powers. The show, directed by Des McAnuff, opened its world premiere engagement at the La Jolla Playhouse on May 24. Many Broadway producers have expressed interest in the product which runs through July 9. But did local critics think Zhivago was worthy of the Great White Way?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Jennifer de Poyen of Variety: "[Composer Lucy Simon's] passion shines through in a passel of melodious ballads… that move in pleasing yet unpredictable musical directions, even when they are hampered by Michael Korie and Amy Powers' often less-than-poetic lyrics, or Steve Canyon Kennedy's overbearing sound design. Simon's thoughtful music is well served by Don Sebeskey's inventive orchestrations for just 10 musicians and terrific vocal performances by all the principals. The main stumbling block for the creative team is the most basic one: how to streamline Pasternak's teeming novel without reducing the characters to cardboard and the politics to pulp. Faced with the brutal task of crafting a few scenes to convey massive chunks of story and flesh out five key characters, book writer Michael Weller cuts so close to the bone that there's little left for either the actors or the audience to chew on."

Charles McNulty of The Los Angeles Times: "Zhivago, which had its world premiere Wednesday at La Jolla Playhouse, may be dizzying, but it's never tedious. How could it be, when every throbbing minute someone's getting married, born, overthrown or blown up? Needless to say, the show packs in more than can be digested in 2 1/2 hours. Fat novels onstage rarely work, and this one is no exception… The problem unfortunately, a big one is that the musical's grand scale makes it difficult to connect to what lies at its sentimental heart—the fate of two lovers whose relationship reflects the tragic vicissitudes of their motherland. It's not that the couple's on-again, off-again affair isn't told with sufficient clarity. But it's hard to settle into a schmaltzy romance when you're being wrenched into carnage-strewn battlefields one minute, secret detention cells the next—and none with more than a pencil sketch's credibility."

Anne Marie Welsh of The Diego Union-Tribune: "During its flashiest moments, under the direction of Playhouse boss and two-time Tony winner Des McAnuff, Zhivago pulls together Simon's tuneful music, a vocally gifted cast and veteran artistic team to create fraught scenes in which love, family and freedom fall under ideological assault mirrored by huge choral waves of resistance. But Michael Weller's relentless book and wooden dialogue feel artificial and leave little space for the gentler sort of lyricism and delightful humor that made Simon's haunting, folk-inflected score for The Secret Garden so emotionally true… Sonically and scenically, the show's tone lacks variety. The lush sweep of Pasternak's epic may not be a good fit for composer Simon. More likely, though, the book, set, orchestrations and sound need fine-tuning emphasis on fine to rescue Zhivago."