THE CIVIL WAR, Hale Centre Theatre, through April 5 (984-9000 or www.halecentretheatre.org), running time: 2 hours (one intermission)
If you come to the Hale Centre Theatre because you want to hear Merrill Osmond in "The Civil War," you may find yourself surprised. You might focus on his voice — rough and nuanced — for the first couple of songs and then, if you are like we were, my husband and I, you'll find your attention captured by other aspects of the production.
First, there's the staging. The empty circular stage looks too small to hold two armies in conflict. But it's not.
The stage drops and rises in pieces. Stairs spiral up and down, and you don't tire of watching the actors turn and lift and fall.
Director Andrew Barrus and choreographer Marilyn May Montgomery make the most of the space, as in one of the early songs, "By the Sword/Sons of Dixie," where soldiers from each side pair up for a back-to-back duet. It is such a perfect metaphor. Each man looks away, singing his own song, paying no heed to the words of his brother.
Then there are the other voices, a variety of lovely voices. The opening-night cast featured David Weekes, who is Osmond's understudy, as the Southern captain. We loved his voice. And we loved Kandyce Garbielsen's voice; she plays a slave named Bessie. And we loved Tierra Jeane's voice. And on and on. This is such a talented cast.
Last summer, Barrus toured and took photos of Civil War battlefields, and those may be his photos projected high on stage walls and on screens above the fray. At any rate, they become as important as Frank Wildhorn's script in drawing the audience into that long ago time and place.
In the end, if there is anything lacking in the production, most of it comes down to Wildhorn's script. He doesn't turn the knife in our hearts as he could. We feel sad for the young wife as she describes the man in black who comes to tell her that her husband is dead, but certain that visit could have been more wrenching, more dramatic.
The most memorable song in the play is "This Old Gray Coat." It actually glorifies the fighting spirit. Meanwhile, ironically, the pastoral photos of the long silent battlefields help us to reflect on the horror of war.
Sensitivity rating: Nothing too sexual. The violence is stylized. People use the Lord's name but it seems more in supplication than in swearing.
E-mail: susan@desnews.com