Skylight's first-class musical 'From Here to Eternity' punches hard

With first-class production values, a big name in the creative team and a powerfully tragic dimension, Skylight Music Theatre's new musical hits like a haymaker.

Adapted from James Jones' 1951 novel, "From Here to Eternity" is set in and around an American Army base in Hawaii in the days leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Yes, there's a famous 1953 film starring Burt Lancaster. But the musical's adapters worked from the 2011 revised edition of the novel, which restored gay elements to the plot that Jones' original publisher had excised in the squeamish '50s.

Tim Rice, the lyricist of "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Evita" and "The Lion King," wrote the lyrics here, too, and has played an active role in developing and promulgating this show. Stuart Brayson composed the music. Rice's son Donald and Bill Oakes wrote the book (story), accepting the challenge of streamlining Jones' long and incident-rich novel.

The plot, oversimplified: Career soldier Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Ian Ward) transfers into G Company. He's a first-class boxer and a talented bugler. Capt. Holmes (Neil Brookshire) wants Prewitt to win a service boxing competition to help the captain's case for promotion, but Prewitt refuses to fight, because he blinded a man in a past bout. Holmes orders Sgt. Warden (Matt Faucher) to break Prewitt's spirit, which sadistic Sgt. Judson (Jared Brandt Hoover) is delighted to do.

Prewitt is a Bartleby-level refusenik, long past the point where most survival-oriented humans would give in. He compounds his predicament by falling in love with the prostitute Lorene (Jamie Mercado). Warden, otherwise the unit's most principled leader, is having an affair with Holmes' wife Karen (Kaitlyn Davidson), giving him incentive, too, to break Prewitt.

An effective thread ties the story together: Col. Delbert (Jonathan Wainwright) is investigating the climactic incident, so we see the action in fast-moving flashback scenes between his interview segments.

Brett Smock directed and choreographed the production, which features several excellent dance numbers for the boys of Company G. Projected video imagery, designed by Brian McMullen, enhances everything. Kevin Heard designed the sound; there are some loud, startling but plot-relevant effects, especially in later scenes.

The score mixes standard musical theater with elements of blues, jazz and rock. I'd need to hear the songs a few more times to guess if any could live beyond the show. My favorites, which might not be your favorites, were Warden's lament "At Ease" and Prewitt and Warden's sad-sack duet "Ain't Where I Wanna Be Blues."

Christopher Elst and Ken Miller should probably get combat pay for the number of fight scenes they had to stage.

Lorene and hard-nosed brothel madam Mrs. Kipfer (Michelle Liu Coughlin) are written pretty close to type, but Mercado and Coughlin breathe appealing life into them. Composer Brayson also uses the three women effectively as a chorus in a dramatic scene.

Gianni Palmarini's feisty Pvt. Maggio provides early comic relief before deepening the show's tragedy.

My millennial companion only knows a little of the history and milieu of this story but still found the production thrilling.

Then again, you don't need to be a history major to understand that men have always been willing to make younger men fight and die for their own selfish reasons.

If you go

Skylight Music Theatre performs "From Here to Eternity" through May 5 at the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway. For tickets, visit skylightmusictheatre.org or call (414) 291-7800.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Skylight's first-class musical 'From Here to Eternity' punches hard