Merchant of Venice: The Musical


Key plot elements, if you don’t know the show: Antonio, a Venetian merchant, borrows money from Shylock, who is Jewish. The money is to help Antonio’s friend, Bassanio, to woo Portia, a sort of wealthy heiress. Meanwhile, Shylock’s daughter, Jessica, yearns to escape her father and her Jewish identity by marrying Lorenzo, a Christian. When Antonio is unable to pay back the money, Shylock believes he finally has the chance to have the power of the law on his side. It’s an illusion. Shylock loses everything. 

My first thought, halfway through Act One was, I want to go out to the lobby at intermission and buy the soundtrack. The music grabbed me from the very first number and never let me go. 


This is not Phantom or Rent, though, where you can just do that. It’s a brand new show, and I saw its first public performance. But it had that quality. I wanted to be able to shove the CD into my car’s player and listen on the way home.


It's a staged reading. At the same time there are props, costumes, acting blocks, chairs and other items on stage, including a simple stair that is used to indicate Shylock entering and leaving his home. All the actors move around, to good effect, particularly when the movement serves to isolate another character, especially Jessica, in several scenes. It's not too many steps from a full production.


Merchant is a reimagining and rewriting of the original, and set to music. It’s a great marriage. Shakespeare’s poetry and monologues allow deep insight into his characters. The book of this show puts the dialogue in modern English, while the songs give the same window into the souls of the characters that the poetic language does. 


I’m not sure why we don’t see more of this. And now I’m really regretting not having seen Macbeth: A Rock Musical at Seattle Public Theatre earlier this year.


In a conversation earlier this week with the creative team, and in conversations after the show with other patrons, and the cast, the name Sondheim came up a lot. You will definitely hear that. But I also heard hints of Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Burt Bacharach, and maybe a little bit of a doo-wop/1950s vibe in one of the numbers. 


Aside from the pure enjoyment of well-written music sung beautifully (which in itself is more than worth your price of admission) what do you get with this show? 


You get a show about oppression, even explicitly at one point. I compare it to the show Passage, done earlier this year by YUN Theatre, and before that by Strawberry Theatre Workshop. Passage, to me, was about the impossibility of human relationships in the context of colonization. Merchant, similarly shows the inescapability of oppression, how we make our accommodations and compromises, and how we use it, or at least try to bend it, to our own advantage. 


The first number Only in Venice starts us out. 


Here in our Venetian home

We live in rare freedom

…

Only in Venice

All have autonomy

Only in Venice


It’s sung with the pride of the best national anthem. Of course, it’s bullshit. Soon after, Antonio spits (multiple times!) on Shylock, father of Jessica, who plots to escape his overbearing fatherhood. After that, Portia is virtually imprisoned from beyond the grave by her father, whose ghost still rules her life and proscribes her future. Then Portia later plots to further victimize Shylock all the while lording her status over her maid, Nerissa, who also joins in the kicking of Shylock. Here’s a section of the song Stress Relief.


There's only one way to

Get rid of the stress

Created by feelings

I can't name or express

And that's finding a friend

Who I can oppress


Round and around it goes. As everyone knows, though, bullshit runs downhill and Shylock and Jessica get the worst of it. They realize this. And they sing.


JESSICA

Tell me, God

Why do I grieve

That I'm not still a daughter?


SHYLOCK

Tell me, God

Did I let her

Believe I didn't love her?


These two, father and daughter can see the costs. There’s a beautiful moment involving a ring, Jessica’s mother’s ring, that Shylock had given to Jessica on the very day that Jessica stole away with Lorenzo. She tries to give it back, and the gesture creates a new beginning, a new understanding. 


The Venetians, however, once again perform their anthem. Hoping it’s still true, they sing,


Only in Venice

Where love outweighs its

cost

Only in Venice

This place that we call home

We never feel alone


So we refuse to be

tossed

By the whims of fortune


Only in Venice

Only in Venice

Only in Venice

Venice

Venice

Venice


But listening to the tone and key of the music, it's not like they really believe it anymore. 


Merchant of Venice: The Musical, written by Anna Tatelman, with music (written, performed, and directed) by Daniel Arthur, directed by Jeremy Radick, produced by Amaranth Turtle Stages, runs through November 10 at Aspire Repertory Theatre in Northgate. Tickets and info: 

https://merchantofvenicemusical.wordpress.com/ 



(Edited at 4:21pm 11/2 to indicate this is a staged reading and to correctly identify Daniel Arthur's involvement.)


Photo of  Elise Cogan as Jessica and Matt Dela Cruz as Shylock, by Jace Tucker (Instagram handle @jace_tucker_photography) 

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