BIG RIVER, Provo Theatre Company, through July 9 (379-0600). Running time: two hours, 30 minutes (15 minute intermission).
PROVO — You wouldn't expect "Big River" to do well without a river and without much of a set, but since this show has it all — humor, heart and a powerful underlying story — it does just fine.
Add the clever Mark Twain dialogue and offbeat Roger Miller music and you've got a memorable musical that's rich in detail, one that theater lovers in the area ought not to miss.
Especially since it's a chance to see Alex Boye in the part of Jim, the runaway slave. Veteran actor Boye clearly is at home on the stage. In this role he plays a character who epitomizes those who, simply by virtue of birth, were destined to live subject to whites, torn from their families and treated — even by those who, like Huck, mean no harm — as creatures without feelings or value.
Boye is supported by a cast of stand-outs including Dan Duckwitz as Huck, Matthew Flynn Bellows as con artist Duke, Ben Cummins as his padre King, and H.K. Baird and Karen Baird in multiple roles, which include Judge Thatcher and the Widow Douglas, respectively.
Bradin W. Wilhelmsen is a wonderful and refreshing Tom Sawyer in this story, which focuses more on Huck and Jim and their rafting adventures down the Mississippi but includes Sawyer in an integral role.
The set is deliberately one color and sparse, with hidden doors and a huge, well-illustrated book that looks as if it was printed in the period. The raft moves as smooth as wood on water, pushed by poles upstage and downstage.
Props are well-chosen, also. However, the coin that fell in the fake water (instead of on the raft) and the lantern that fell over on the wooden timbers (and would have set it ablaze) were distracting.
The costumes are also well-done, with Jim's badly fitting trousers and Huck's loose cutoffs contrasting sharply with the velvet and lace of Widow Douglas' and Ms. Watson's outfits.
The music on the soundtrack is clean and the vocals throughout are rich and heartfelt, although Huck's vocals are sometimes a little weak. Boye's, of course, are wonderful, deep and rich. The duets with Huck are very nice, especially "River in the Rain" and "Worlds Apart."
The pace is lively. The dialogue is easy on the ear. For instance, Tom, upon seeing Huck alive, says, "So then you weren't murdered at all?"
Huck ponders his choices: "It's trouble to do right, no trouble to do wrong and the wage is just the same."
Here is a story for the ages, even though slavery in this country has been gone for a while.
There are lessons to be learned along with "considerable trouble and considerable joy" as Huck so aptly puts it.
E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com