All you need is Love

  Photos by JANA SUMMERS Minglie Chen and
Todd Caleca perform in "Triumph of Love" on
Friday.

By Howard Ho
Daily Bruin Contributor

While today musical theater is still engulfed in the sea of
Disney musicals and Andrew Lloyd Webber extravaganzas, a musical
that deals with sex, gender and class provides a welcome dose of
the risque and taboo.

Director John Hall and the UCLA Musical Theater Workshop are
only too happy to oblige.

“Last year we did a very contemporary piece called
“˜You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.’ It was all
cartoon characters,” Hall said. “This year the musical
is based on a 17th-century French play. You get to wear big hair
and big dresses and do a lot of different styles, and I thought the
students would really enjoy that.”

Members of the workshop will perform “Triumph of
Love,” a musical by James Magruder, lyricist Susan
Birkenhead, and composer Jeffrey Stock, this Friday through Sunday
as well as the following weekend. Based on a play by Pierre Carlet
de Chamblain de Marivaux, the show unambiguously deals with the
yins and yangs of the world we live in.

“Even the songs differentiate the class lines. Being the
servant, I get to let loose whereas the ingenue and the prince have
to sing ballads,” said Kendra Doyle, a third-year theater
student who plays Corine, the princess’ sexually-avaricious
servant.

  Myles Nye rehearses for the opening of
"Triumph" this Friday. Carlos Avilas, a fourth-year theater student
who plays the harlequin in “Triumph,” agrees that the
musical inspires reflection.

“It is a very light comedy, but it definitely does make
you think what is a woman and what is a princess,” Avilas
said.

The story of a princess seeking the love of her mortal enemy
remains a timeless one. Yet the elements of cross-dressing, love
triangles and even cross-dressing love triangles certainly puts a
spin on those time-honored ideas.

“I love being able to use that side of me in addition to
being able to sing and act,” said Claire Broderick, a
second-year theater student who also plays Corine.
“I’ve had a lot of fun with the role and I’m
really glad I was able to do it.”

In one scene, the dim-witted gardener accidentally fondles the
cross-dressing Corine’s breasts only to discover her true
gender. While extremely comical, it also allows performers to
expand their stage experiences as well as play with their
sexuality.

“If I’m comfortable with what I’m doing, then
the audience will be comfortable with it and they’ll let me
play with my own sexuality as long as I do only what I’m
comfortable with,” Broderick said.

 

“I’ve had to work a lot with John Hall on creating
boundaries that still work for the show but are good for me so I
can keep my own integrity and still keep the integrity of the
character,” she added.

Certainly “Triumph” was made for mature performers,
and creating an opportunity for students to mature as performers
was a high priority for Hall.

“The opportunities for music theater at UCLA are pretty
limited. It seems that the more people I give an opportunity to,
the better off it is,” said Hall, who has two casts of seven
that alternate performing each week.

Hall has been teaching the class for 25 years now and many of
his students have gone on to careers in Broadway or television. In
fact, Susan Egan, a former student of Hall’s workshop,
starred in the original Broadway run of “Triumph” and
brought it to Hall’s attention.

In addition, Hall prides himself on the openness of the program,
allowing students from all disciplines to audition for the class
during fall quarter.

“Lots of students like music theater even though they
don’t want to try it as a career. They still love it and
would like to perform it, and we’re happy to have
them,” Hall said.

Minglie Chen, a fourth-year communications studies student, has
been involved in the Musical Theater Workshop since 1997. She plays
Princess Leonid yet maintains the other academic side of
herself.

“I have big plans for going to New York and trying to get
on Broadway or wherever it takes me,” Chen said.
“Academic wise, I want to go to law school. There’s a
two-fold thing going on.”

Indeed, the talents that go into a production like
“Triumph” do not fit into a single category. The set
design was done professionally, as were the costumes, which include
frivolous frocks and wigs of that period. In addition, a 22-piece
orchestra, twice the size used in the 1997 original Broadway show,
will accompany the singers.

Pushing the limits of his students, Hall remains honest with
them, hoping they will improve and take their talents into the
world.

“Especially in this town, the hard thing with training
performers is, I think, you have to give them your honest
opinion,” Hall said. “There are too many people out
there saying you were wonderful, you were great. You don’t
get any better with that kind of stuff. They kind of know that
I’m a straight, shoot-from-the-hip kind of guy.”

THEATER: “Triumph of Love” is
playing at Schoenberg Hall from Jan 18-20 and 25-27, at 8 p.m. on
Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. on Sundays. For tickets call the
Central Ticket Office at (310) 825-2101.