Review: ‘Matchbox Magic Flute’ is a chance to see Mary Zimmerman’s magic up close
To those of us who have followed the work of Mary Zimmerman all these years, her latest endeavor, “The Matchbox Magic Flute,” represents a kind of full circle. After starting her professional career in a former post office building on Chicago’s Belmont Avenue, Zimmerman’s distinctive visual interpretations then took her to the Lookingglass Theatre, then Goodman Theatre, then Broadway and the expansive world of grand opera.
She’s become a particular favorite at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, no less.
So there’s something especially cool about Zimmerman shrinking an allegorical Mozart opera down to 10 performers and a five-piece orchestra and premiering it in the Goodman’s studio theater back in Chicago with a capacity of just a couple of hundred folks. I’ve reviewed plenty of operas in my life that were in conversation with musical theater, and even a few for which you could say the reverse, but I’ve not seen anything quite like “The Matchbox Magic Flute” — its small scale allowing Zimmerman and her longstanding design collaborators Todd Rosenthal, Ana Kuzmanic and T.J. Gerckens to bring their trademark hand-made sensitivity to the affair.
Rosenthal has built a kind of chocolate-box theater within a theater here, replete with wings, drops, footlights, boxes, flickering lamps and the other nomenclature of the tiny opera houses that were dotted all over Europe during Mozart’s era in the late 18th century, and later in the United States. Kuzmanic’s costumes are all like stories in their own right.
The show basically delivers “The Magic Flute,” the action of which takes place in a fanciful forest involving trials in service of love, replete with such famous arias as “Der Hölle Rache,” as sung by the Queen of the Night. In this production, that would be Emily Rohm, who deservedly brought the house down on Monday night when she fabulously dispatched one of Mozart’s most recognizable (and difficult) pieces of music. The Emanuel Schikaneder libretto has been liberally adapted by Zimmerman and now offers many comedic anachronisms, some of which add to the fun, and some of which jar. Such are the pleasures and temptations of the public domain.
Rohm is a musical theater person rather than an opera singer and that’s true of much of the cast, including Shawn Pfautsch, Reese Parish, Billy Rude, Lauren Molina, Russell Mernagh and Tina Muñoz Pandya. Only Keanon Kyles, who plays Sarastro, has significant opera credits in his biography, although in the case of Marlene Fernandez, a zesty young talent who plays Pamina, you’d swear otherwise. Part of the fun here is watching theater singers try their voices at the operatic repertory and they surely exceed all reasonable expectations. (Amanda Dehnert is the music director and she arranged and adapted the music in concert with Andre Pluess.)
Much of the piece is played for laughs and I can’t say I found it especially funny, although some around me did. In fact, the more emotional sections of the show (which lasts two hours) work best, which is not surprising given the acting talent at Zimmerman’s disposal. At other times, it felt on opening night like not everyone got the memo saying “matchbox,” given how some of the subtler moments were squelched by overplaying. The show also broke a few of its own rules, as when one performer left the world behind to show up in the balcony.
I think Zimmerman and her collaborators might work more on unity of style and purpose, commit more sincerely to the truth of this story, eschew tempting campery, and stay with their concept even if it comes at the expense of a joke or two. At this first blush, Zimmerman is a bit stuck between period parody and contemporary reinterpretation and the show flits back and forth. I’m for more of the latter.
While it’s true that “The Magic Flute” is an unusual affair, intended by its creators to delight, it does have “Candide”-like serious Enlightenment points to make about the importance of personal integrity, the need for working towards constant self-improvement and the power of true love. Much once was made of its Masonic themes, although that’s not of interest to this version.
Plenty will be, though, to fans of this piece more accustomed to viewing it a few blocks away at the gargantuan Lyric Opera House, where “The Magic Flute” long has struck gold and charged accordingly.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
Review: “The Matchbox Magic Flute” (3.5 stars)
When: Through March 24
Where: The Goodman’s Owen Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.
Running time: 2 hours
Tickets: $35-$105 at 312-443-3800 and www.goodmantheatre.org
