Question:
What's better than a lively musical with a love story?
Answer: A lively musical with
two love stories.
The example that makes the point
is "Young Abe Lincoln,"
the highly commendable Theaterworks/USA production at the Promenade
Theater, which deserves to be a magnet for children.
The standard love story is the
one between Abe Lincoln and the ill-fated Ann Rutledge during
his early days as a storekeeper and novice politician in Illinois
in the 1830's.
But the deeper, more substantive
love story is that of a young man impassioned by the tenets
of the United States: exhilarated by the concepts of liberty
and equality and exalted by the realization that such ideas,
expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution
and books of law can be applied to the lives of ordinary people.
With its sprightly music by
Jeffrey Lodin, its fast-moving book and purposeful lyrics by
John Allen and the efforts of a cast of five who do the work
of legions, "Young Abe Lincoln" sketches the early
life of the future 16th President in the course of one entertaining
hour. The show takes Lincoln from his days as an Indiana farm
boy through his family's extended journey to Illinois and beyond,
to the time when he worked for a grocer, lost his first campaign,
studied law and won his first case.
Though Stefan Lingenfelter is
front and center as the boyish but stalwart Abe, he has in
some ways the easiest job on stage. Tony Freeman, Eugene Key,
Ron Roznowski and Laura Stanczyk turn up in an enormous variety
of roles, as everyone from Abe's Ma and Pa, Ann and a school
teacher who becomes Abe's first client, to politicians, grocers,
slaves, a gang, a marshal, three different sets of campaign
audiences and even a team of horses hauling the Lincolns and
their belongings from Indiana to Illinois across the Wabash
River. This is one musical with real hoofers.
Such versatility calls for practically
nonstop costume changes, and even if the secret owes much to
Velcro - as members of the cast explained in a brief but pleasant
question-and-answer session at the end of the show - it also
owes a lot to the ability of the performers to impart individual
character to each of their many roles.
Best of all, the musical, while
effectively instructive, never condescends to its audience.
In a season that embraces Independence Day and Bastille Day, "Young
Abe Lincoln" offers good theater and good education.
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