The Ghost & Mrs. Muir

July 21st, 2005
NoHo Arts Center, North Hollywood
Musical, went with Troy and Marty

The story is about a demure and proper widowed woman raising her children by herself with her maid, befriended by a handsome ghost of a sea captain who built the house she bought. Based on the book, which became a movie, and then a TV series.

It's just not there yet. And we were a little underwhelmed by the pairing of the lead actors. Not because their voices lacked. Both James Barbour and Lynne Wintersteller have very strong and lovely Broadway calibre voices, and they can certainly act. No, it was more about casting. Both leads can't feel dour in this storyline. It just doesn't work.

The melodies were very nice, the group numbers tending to be more polished and melodic than the bare-bones ballads. I liked Lucy's ballads more, but thought poor James Barbour got stuck with the blander melodies for his rich and strong baritone.

Lynn has a lovely, rich voice, with strength and control and color. And there was nothing wrong with her acting -- very pleasant and appealing. She just isn't what we tend to expect of this literary character and her arc. She was cast just enough against type to make it hard to put your finger on what is missing.

I think Troy would agree with B and I that DeTurk & Mellon's melodies from Dorian the Musical are much more dynamic and evocative (and fun). But Dorian had more time to evolve also. The writing -- B especially felt some warm, funny and engaging aspects of the sparring of the main characters were completely lost. I agree. This piece is almost humorless. In short, this musical is going some place, but it's not quite there yet.

But there was a great line from it:
"True love is not blind; it sees everything." (James J. Mellon)