Harris Doran and Maureen Moore

The brilliance of Edward Arlington Robinson's end of the 19th century poem, "Richard Cory" (written in 1896) is that it encapsulates one man's glittering yet tragic life into four brief stanzas, culminating in this unforgettable two-line climax: "And Richard Cory one calm summer night,/ Went home and put a bullet through his head."  While A. R. Gurney's play adaptation now musicalized by Ed Dixon has indeed removed the tight structure from those sixteen imagery rich lines, Gurney and Dixon's collaboration has managed to transform Robinson's poem into something quite special and unique in its own right.

Richard Cory, the musical, still centers on the wealthy man who, though envied by his town's less fortunate, ends up shooting himself. As Robinson ingeniously distilled Cory's incurable isolation into a spare poem, so Ed Dixon has been equally ingenious in using the musical format to illustrate that isolation. Thus, without any attempt at suspense as to what will happen (the show begins with Cory's death), the show uses the nine-member cast to illustrate why and how. What gives this chamber piece its originality is that the eight performers who act as a chorus of townspeople and as individual characters replay the events leading up to the tragedy in song, while Cory, the outsider, only speaks -- unable to find his own singing voice until it's too late. It's a construct that works beautifully.

Of course, in a musical, no amount of originality in executing a concept will go very far without a strong score and smart lyrics. Fortunately, Dixon delivers on both counts. While the theme is operatic and the music, except for the spoken libretto by the title character, is sung through, it's not dissonant but, in fact, quite melodic.

Director James Brennan has done an outstanding job of staging which is given a strong boost from Kevin Hardy's lighting design and a cast that's as diverse as the musical styles (from old-fashioned to modern musical theater, to cabaret and modern opera). Cady Huffman, the original Ulla in The Producers, makes the most of a relatively minor star turn as a waitress. The larger female roles are superbly played by Maureen Moore, Lynne Winsteller and Christeena Riggs -- the latter a delightful Kristin Chenowith look and sound-alike. Harris Doran, John Sloman and Patrick Ryan Sullivan also do outstanding work. Herndon Lackey plays the non-speaking central character with commendable understatement.

Lawrence Yurman has expertly arranged the music for a single piano and his playing is so fine that you almost don't miss a larger band. While Richard Cory is a rather special show that's unlikely to have the wide audience appeal to seed an extended run in a larger Off-Broadway house, it does have the musical legs to warrant an arrangement for more instruments and more detailed production values at quality regional theaters and small opera companies (New York's intimate and too little known opera company, the DiCapo Opera Company which often stages operatic musicals like Sondheim's Passion comes to mind).

And so, while Richard Cory may not be the NY Musical Festival offering with the strongest commercial possibilities, it certainly one which proves that not all the musicals being written are wannabe Urinetowns and Altar Boyz.