In medieval England, the setting of the 1960 Lerner and Loewe musical “Camelot,” the weather has altered. Previously, “the climate must be perfect all the year,” as the song’s timeless lyrics state.
Sadly, the atmosphere is darker and murkier in the new Lincoln Center Theater production, directed by Bartlett Sher and featuring a significantly revised book by Aaron Sorkin (Sher’s collaborator on the recent stage adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird”). Figurative precipitation is constantly threatening, and there may even be gusts of pontification on the horizon. In this new production of “Camelot,” the perfection of the show’s geographic setting is merely a metaphor.
Sorkin and Sher haven’t been able to resist the temptation to tamper with the original source material. While the original libretto could have been enhanced with some surgical editing, Sorkin approached the show with a heavy rewrite that attempts to modernize the 62-year-old show, which opened on Broadway less than two months after John F. Kennedy was elected the 35th President. Because of that, the show has always been tied to JFK’s legacy. With somewhat positive to mediocre reviews when it opened in 1960, the show enjoyed a long run after a 12-minute appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show gave it a nationwide boost.
Large-scale revivals of vintage musicals are something that Lincoln Center Theater has come to be known for. Sher, who directed them all, undoubtedly put on another rich pageant. However, the lighthearted charm of “Camelot,” especially evident in Lerner’s wonderful lyrics, is diminished by the dark atmosphere introduced by Sorkin and Michael Yeargan’s imposing yet ominous sets. The show’s sets, which appear to have taken its inspiration from several episodes of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” are no match for the sumptuousness of the furnishings in the original 1960 production.
Truth be told, “Camelot” has always been an extremely sad musical comedy, and no one will ever confuse it with “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum.” Looking at many of his “West Wing” script contributions, Sorkin is indeed a good fit for Lerner’s unique blend of romanticism and cynicism (or reality). As I’ve pointed out above, the show’s weakest point has always been the length of Lerner’s book, but Sorkin apparently did not like using the delete function in the Final Draft app on his MacBook with this new production.
In this new version, Sorkin appears hell-bent on drawing attention to the parallel political themes he believes exist in 2023. While mostly adhering to the original plot, Sorkin has added starkly relevant sections, like when the disgruntled knights of Arthur’s newly formed Round Table complain about the “equality” that the Queen is endorsing. One particularly awkward line has Arthur remarking that these reforms are necessary since “The Middle Ages won’t end by itself.” I didn’t know King Arthur had that kind of prescience about historical events.
Finally, my new line (unquestionably aimed at Donald Trump supporters) that Arthur utters when he comments about Mordred, the King’s bastard son, and his evil persona: “Oh, you’d be amazed at who people will follow.” With the type of boisterous response from the New York audience that line got, Trump should be concerned about the Manhattan jury pool.
Perhaps the most glaring mistake that new production makes is its complete removal of magic from the show, a crucial element of its original charm. Guenevere disproves Arthur’s withdrawal of the sword from the stone, claiming that he simply got lucky: it became looser after being tried by thousands of people. Merlin, Arthur’s magician in the original production, no longer “youthens” (ages backward) and is simply an elderly sage mentor. Morgan Le Fay (Marilee Talkington) is no longer a sorceress but a scientist.
In addition, Mr. Sorkin has transformed Guenevere into a woman of influence behind the throne (“We’re business partners,” Arthur tells her), making her the prominent architect of the Round Table, a new order of knights that will adhere to the ethos “might for right” (she speaks the phrase, not Arthur as in the original), rather than “might is right.” This Guenevere is no wallflower and uttered several retorts to Arthur that Tina Fey would be proud of.
While Andrew Burlap as Arthur is convincingly boyish as the young King Arthur, he lacks the gravitas and stature that legendary actor Richard Burton brought to the role. This point leads me to another painful observation about this new production: the entire performance is performed by the primarily American cast without British accents, which immediately confounded me as “Camelot” occurs during the Middle Ages. Perhaps it’s difficult for me to erase the legendary Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet’s performances in the original production, but they sounded convincing in their roles.
The infamous love triangle plot between Arthur/Guenevere/Lancelot is accentuated because Jordan Donica’s Lancelot is everything Arthur is not: captivating, hilarious, hotly virulent, self-assured, and a spectacular singer. As usual, Lancelot’s “If Ever I Would Leave You” and his tenderly sentimental “I Loved You Once in Silence” (originally sung by Guenevere) are musical highlights. Furthermore, Soo has become one of Broadway’s true treasures, an incredible emotional clarity performer with a deep, flawless voice.
If there is a single reason to see this new product, this “Camelot” comes to life when the orchestra is playing under the spectacular music direction of Kimberly Grigsby. The score of “Camelot” remains one of the great soundtracks in the Broadway theater canon and is a joy to listen to as performed by a 30-piece orchestra (good luck to that when the show ultimately goes on tour). Guenevere’s seductive “Take Me to the Fair” and “Fie on Goodness,” in which the now-embarrassed knights gravitate back toward corruption, were two songs that were removed early in the first run but were recorded on the cast recording. These songs have been usefully restored. And although he doesn’t sing, it’s always a treat to see Dakin Matthews, a master character actor who has appeared in several Sorkin productions, portray both Pellinore and Merlyn, Arthur’s faithful companion and spiritual and moral guide.
While this production is a bit of an unexpected misfire for both Sorkin and Sher, the show still has an abundance of joys. It continues to validate the Vivian Beaumont Theater as the incomparable venue to see a Broadway musical with its perfectly calibrated acoustics and theater-in-the-round format that provides maximum opportunity to revisit classic shows. Let’s hope future productions remain reasonably faithful to the original source materials and don’t get seduced by the notion that they must make changes just because they can. As Arthur might have said, “Intelligence is not wisdom.”
Mark Vena is the CEO and Principal Analyst at SmartTech Research based in Silicon Valley. As a technology industry veteran for over 25 years, Mark covers many consumer tech topics, including PCs, smartphones, smart home, connected health, security, PC and console gaming, and streaming entertainment solutions. Mark has held senior marketing and business leadership positions at Compaq, Dell, Alienware, Synaptics, Sling Media and Neato Robotics. Mark has appeared on CNBC, NBC News, ABC News, Business Today, The Discovery Channel and other media outlets. Mark’s analysis and commentary have appeared on Forbes.com and other well-known business news and research sites. His comments about the consumer tech space have repeatedly appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, TechNewsWorld and other news publications.
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