Prelude & Liebestod
Sometimes I go to a theater and get much more than I bargained for. That was the case when I went to see Prelude & Liebestod at the Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre in North Hollywood. I’m not particularly a fan of Wagner or his music, but I did think I was going to see a production about him and his music. Also, I am an admirer of Co-Director Wayland Pickard who shared the Director’s job with Sherry Netherland. Instead, I found myself watching a play that was so erotic as to make me squirm in my seat and feel uncomfortable throughout the entire production. Am I a prude? I don’t think so, but I am not comfortable listening to ninety minutes of filthy dialogue.
The entire play is carried by Larry Eisenberg who plays a renowned, but obviously troubled Conductor. We are tuned in to his thoughts during the whole production as he goes back in time thinking back on an erotic sexual escapade in his early years which he describes in full detail using every description and four-letter word imaginable. The entire time, he is conducting Wagner’s Prelude & Liebestod in front of an (imaginary) orchestra. The background music, of course, is taped. Others in the cast include Klair Bybee as the Concertmaster, Jayne Clement, the Conductor’s wife, Roberta Orlandi as the soprano and a young man played by Matt Ryan, all innocuous roles with very little dialogue. Just when the music ends and we hope for the play to do the same, the Conductor decides to repeat the entire composition! I would have liked to have been spared having to hear that music again as well. Instead, enjoy Alan
Ayckbourn’s Comic Potential at the same theater.
Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre
10900 Burbank Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA