Love conquers much. It transcends language, culture, pushy and overly protective parents. It overcomes mis-communication and lack of communication. The Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre in north-suburban Chicago is staging a production of The Light in the Piazza that hits these tropes in nearly operatic style (literally).
Winner of six Tony Awards during its 2005-2006 Broadway run, Piazza is based on Elizabeth Spencer's 1960 novella. With book by Craig Lucas and lyrics and music by Adam Guettel, Piazza is set during the summer of 1953 in Florence, Italy.
American tourist Margaret Johnson (Mary Ernster) brings her adult daughter Clara (Summer Smart) on a summer holiday to Florence, a romantic place she and her husband enjoyed in the days before World War II. Margaret wants to show Clara all the history and art the city has to offer. Clara is more interested in the people, particularly Fabrizio Naccarelli (Max Quinlan), a young man she meets in the piazza.
The two young people are almost mystically drawn to each other, but something causes Margaret to try to keep Clara from getting involved with Fabrizio. Is it their differing cultures and languages? Is it that he's Italian and she's a southern American? Or is there something else? The answer is revealed gradually through the show's two and half hours.
Piazza opens with a pair of young lovers dancing in a piazza: a dream-like pas de deux. The couple weave silently in an out throughout the story, metaphorically representing love, romance—and the possibilities that lie ahead for Fabrizio and Clara.
Each of the other couples—Clara's parents, Fabrizio's, his brother Giuseppe (Alexander Aguilar) and sister-in law Franca (Jennifer T. Grubb)—seem also to symbolize love and relationships at various stages of blossom and deterioration. Who is to say for sure what will lead to a lifelong romance, and what to one that erodes over time and missed opportunities?
In a sense, it's a conventional tale: boy meets girl, boy loses girl…you know the rest, if you've ever seen a musical. But Piazza has a few surprising left turns here and there to keep you guessing exactly why Margaret is so resistant to Clara's involvement with the young Fabrizio. And for the observant theater-goer there is much happening beneath the surface amongst all the principles to make this just as easily a cautionary tale about love and relationships.
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