By Bridgette M. Redman
The story of Christ's passion has been dubbed "the greatest story ever told" for many reasons. For Christians, it is the crux of their faith, a story of sacrifice, of suffering, of forgiveness and redemption. It is a story so fraught with dramatic themes and hope that it has been told using every medium possible in ways both traditional and new.
"The Living Stations of the Cross" being performed at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit combines both traditional and new. It performs each of the 14 stations of the cross, as celebrated by Pope John Paul II in 1991, as musical drama with meticulously costumed actors singing powerful numbers to dramatize the story along with fancy lights and a high-decibel sound system.
The production attracted not your typical theater crowd as evidenced by the fact that the general admission venue was half full 50 minutes before the production began.
"The Living Stations of the Cross" attempts to be many things: a communal prayer, an evangelistic undertaking and a musical drama production. As a theater reviewer, I'm not about to critique the finer points of communication between Man and His Maker, so I shan't comment on its role as a communal prayer except to say that the traditional responses are provided for the audience.
Nor is it a reviewer's place to comment much on the effectiveness of a production as an evangelistic undertaking. It is enough to note that the audience members present were moved. One can go so far as to say it was traumatizing for some of the children present who were shaking and weeping during the later stations. Whether the spiritual life of those present was enhanced by the production is a personal evaluation beyond the scope of a review.
Therefore, I will concentrate on that which is within the purview of a theater critic – the dramatic musical presentation of the Easter story.
Director Kelly Nieto, who was also playwright and co-composer and co-lyricist with Nick Dalbis, assembled a cast with an impressive amount of acting and singing experience. Christopher Vaught as Jesus, Amy Heard as Mary Magdelene, Elizabeth Mihalo as Jesus' mother Mary and Andy Langlands as a Roman soldier had strong voices that would make opera fans sit up with pride. Their singing was clear and powerful, despite being over amplified in ways that sometimes distorted the emotion they were otherwise so skilled at conveying.
Nicholas John Paul's Peter was accessible and sympathetic. His character was one of the few who had an authenticity that went beyond stereotypical portrayals.
Overall the biggest weakness of the production was that it was so over-produced that it pushed the characters away from the audience. The loudness of the speaker system and sound effects, the constant barrage of fancy light tricks, the iconic costumes that bespoke of symbols more than people got in the way of being able to connect with the people in the story. The story became the special effects and the spectacle rather than the suffering and death of a man who wanted to change the world.
There was also an irony that a month after Pope Benedict XVI exonerated the Jews for the death of Jesus, that "The Living Stations of the Cross" would choose to present the Sanhedrin as the worst of the Jewish stereotypes, sneering, evil men who had no humanity in them. There was an almost animal-like quality to them, and it was impossible to see in them religious leaders who were making a difficult decision to protect their people. It was also historically interesting to see the Jewish priests commanding Roman praetorians.
The talent in the production is tremendous. There isn't a weak link from the youngest child to the oldest actor. Had the focus been on their incredible performances and on the age-old story, the production that would have had much greater power and ability to move. Sometimes a single genuine tear can be more effective than the public wailing and gnashing of teeth.
REVIEW:
'The Living Stations of the Cross'
Living Faith – Fine Arts Apostolate at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, 9844 Woodward Ave., Detroit. $15. Tuesday-Sunday through April 17. http://www.livingstations.org.
