Playwright: Harvey Schmidt, music; Tom Jones, lyrics; N. Richard Nash, book.
At: BoHo Theatre @ Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets: 773-975-8150; BoHoTheatre.com; $35. Runs through: Dec. 16
It's not quite the Dust Bowl, but the drought won't end in this 1930s southwest rural town and people have just about run out of hope. So has Lizzie Curry ( Neala Barron ), on the brink of being an old maid as she keeps house for her rancher father and two brothers. They are so desperate, they're willing to put their faithdespite legitimate skepticismin Starbuck ( Tommy Thurston ), a con man rainmaker. Within 24 hours it's pouring rain and Lizzie must choose between two suiters.
This musical of N. Richard Nash's 1954 play, The Rainmaker, is a sweet story about ordinary people, rural folks with natural reticence about personal feelings, and what happens when someone extraordinary blows into their lives. However, in director Peter Marston Sullivan's interpretation, even Starbuck is ordinary. The lyrics speak of his "bright, shiny wagon" but he pulls a poor peddler's handcart and his clothes are dull. He's not the imposing, handsome fantasy hero of most productions. This shaves a considerable layer of magic off the tale, but it also levels the playing field between Starbuck and File ( Denzel Tsopnang ), the divorced local sheriff who becomes Lizzie's other suiter. This Starbuck is more imaginative and verbal than most, and has more chutzpah, and is a masterful intuitive psychologist, but he's neither happier nor more fulfilled than anyone else, which is crucial to understanding the strength of Lizzie's smaller dreams.
Another layer is lost by this being a scaled-down version of the original, with big choral numbers and dances cut or shortened. The authors themselves reduced it some years ago to encourage more frequent productions, but it robs the show of Broadway musical pizazz and size. The remaining chamber musical elevates the ordinary and mundane in the manner of, say, Our Town, which does a pretty good job of it.
The sweet story is intact, of course, with a lovely, lilting score by the authors of The Fantasticks, delivered with great intelligence and feeling under musical director Ellen K. Morris. Barron, Thurston and Tsopnang have fine musical chops and big voices, and the supporting company is strong. The three-piece orchestra ( piano, violin and reeds ) is lovely and provides considerable instrumental variety despite its tiny size. These performances are the real reason to see the show, as few readers will be awareas I amof differences from the original.
Costume note: if it's scorching hot, why do the men wear vests?
Starbuck is the name of Capt. Ahab's pure-hearted first mate in Herman Melville's Moby Dick and I don't know if N. Richard Nash intentionally borrowed the name. The charlatan weather-maker and the good, doomed sailor seem like polar opposites ... but you be the judge.