My overall impression
You need to go into show with your eyes open. Writer, director and producer Kelly D’Angelo is certainly ambitious in undertaking to stage a Broadway style musical of “The Count of Monte Cristo.” There’s no denying the show has problems, most of which D’Angelo might have avoided if she had limited the number of hats she’s wearing here. Running the two hour show without an intermission is perhaps not the wisest decision The production suffers from a clumsy book and repeatedly plunging the audience into blackouts that a more inventive director could have worked out. But these flaws and others should be judged with some generosity. That this show is not a total success should be no surprise That it succeeds as well as it does, however is worthy of our respect. Composer Matt Dahan has done some wonderful work. It might not look like a West End musical, but it sounds like one. There is some weakness in the ensemble, but there are also some standouts like David Meinke (the Count), Mary Nepi and Anthony Gruppuso. Years ago, when living in London, I went to see a work in progress that was staged in a Gym. It had problems too. The play was “The Elephant Man.” There’s a lot this show needs and a lot it lacks. But what it has plenty of is potential
