In 2012, Patti Lupone opened the Broadway nightclub 54 Below with a one week engagement. She performed her magnificent song “Meadowlark” which is justifiably famous in theatrical circles. I had never before heard this masterpiece of exquisite, lyrical storytelling from 1976’s The Baker’s Wife, a Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Wicked) musical which toured the country but closed out of town before reaching Broadway. At the intermission of Renascence I was both ecstatic and overwhelmed that the first act contained – at least – two Meadowlarks in its score, one being “The Bean-Stalk.” By the end of this gloriously creative world premiere musical, I was speechless in the best possible way.
Edna St. Vincent Millay was the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1923. In this loosely dreamlike show, we follow her from her impoverished, fatherless upbringing prior to skyrocketing to literary fame with the publication of Renascence, a poem she entered into a 1917 contest in The Lyric Year. The prize was to be a life changing $1,000. In order to tell this emotionally bountiful and progressively feminist story, first time composer Carmel Dean has beautifully scored the music to Vincent’s (her preferred name) poems.
Renascence is a biographical piece but key figures in her life are given the opportunity to express their feelings using Vincent’s words. The effect is mesmerizing. The prose is rich with imagery and the music is simply gorgeous, enhancing the dramatic storytelling and providing layers upon layers of emotional depth that never get in the way of the words themselves. Clearly one of the best musicals of the year, Renascence is a tour de force on every level.
Jack Cummings III and book writer Dick Scanlon directed this superlative musical. I loved everything, everything, everything I saw on stage from the entire creative team. Jen Schriever’s spectacularly fine and nuanced lighting was particularly memorable. I saw history illuminated from Vincent’s humble beginnings to her expansively larger than life persona. The creative team let us fill in the visual blanks as we listened and marveled at the never ending cascade of gorgeous prose flowing from the stage at the Abrons Art Center.
Every person in this six member cast was spot on in their (often) multiple characterizations. As Vincent, Hannah Corneau’s performance of this feisty, flawed and complex woman is astonishingly fine. Her story arc and personal growth are always believable and clearly delineated, equally sumptuous and scrappy. Ms. Corneau will likely be someone I see in the future and gladly boast that I saw her in Renascence. She’s that captivating on stage.
Miraculously fine casting, however, nicely balances this show away from being simply a star vehicle. Each cast member shines brightly and that is not simply the result of atmospheric lighting. Vincent’s words and the relationships in her orbit are explored with a breathtaking level of emotional heft and depth. Mikaela Bennett, Jason Gotay, Danny Harris Kornfeld, Katie Thompson and Donald Webber, Jr. manage to traverse ensemble work and then step into and out of their own riveting spotlight.
Renascence is a triumph musically and theatrically. There were a few aggressively unimpressed through negative body language types in the audience including the woman who sat next to me and clapped lightly as if it pained her. I felt sorry for them. What I saw on stage can be summed up with a few lines from Renascence: “Of wind blew up to me and thrust/Into my face a miracle/Of orchard-breath, and with the smell, –/I know not how such things can be! –/I breathed my soul back into me.” Run to see this one. Or better yet: dash away/dash away/dash away all.
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