My overall impression
“Annabella” creates a burgundy world in the sparse, comfortable and efficient Lounge Theatre space; it’s a seductive world, and what begins as a seemingly lyrical Italian fairy tale quickly becomes deceptively dark and bleak by the show’s end. A wayward puppeteer encounters, and falls in love with, a young healing witch in the woods. He also meets the wicked-stepmother-esque woman who keeps the girl Annabella and love, lies and memory loss follow in a tragic story that deals in issues of fidelity, obsession, madness and death.
I fear this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea—there are no cheap laughs or knowing winks and nudges to the audience (in fact there is an almost complete absence of mirth); one unfavorable review implied the music is bland…well, as they say, critics at a show are like eunuchs in a harem, they can watch it being performed every night but are unable to do it themselves anymore.
This is, in fact, a fine operetta written by talented people who understand the medium and it is performed by richly talented singers, and as such the piece relies less upon a forward-driving narrative than it does the establishment of an overall thematic core. The place it takes you to when the singers are going full-force is a type of operatic tradition you have to have an appreciation for or you’ll just be waiting impatiently for a witch on a crane to go screeching above the audience’s heads so you can clap some more, or something. No, here you will only get the endlessly lilting baroque of Sam Johnides piano and the powerful voice of lead and co-writer Tony Gonzalez; a command performance, frail and strong at once, by Kimberly Hessler as the title character, and Melinda Ehrlich, sexy, stunning and confident, as the vain Valentina. You’ll also get a fully realized libretto, an amusing Greek chorus of three mad marionette characters and quite a lot of amazing talent in 90 minutes for your $10.00 admission price. Go ahead, check it out!
