BROADWAY SNAP-SHOT
by Russell Bouthiller

Dateline: 13 May 2003

ENCHANTED APRIL

What could be better than a month by the Mediterranean at a luxurious Italian villa? Sounds as grand to me as it does to the four English women in ENCHANTED APRIL, a new romantic comedy adapted by Matthew Barber from Elizabeth von Armin's best-selling 1921 novel, "The Enchanted April," now at the Belasco Theatre.

Directed by Michael Wilson, ENCHANTED APRIL stars Jayne Atkinson as Lotty Wilton, the repressed, satellite wife of a stiff-upper-lip solicitor, Mellersh (Michael Cumpsty), and Molly Ringwald as the equally repressed and slightly depressed Rose Arnott, wife of a social-climbing novelist, Frederick (Daniel Gerroll). Returning from their women's club, the two ladies discover that they have independently read the same "advert" for a rental property along the Ligurian coast offering sunshine and wisteria.

Amid complaints of the English rain, Lotty and Rose plan their getaway and take a hard look at the complexities of their lives in an uncertain time. Adrift in the aftermath of the Great War, the two women appreciate their good fortune in still having their men. But, they feel displaced as the role of women undergoes a post-war redefinition.

Lotty's persistence prevails over Rose's apprehension and the two plunk down the pounds to secure the villa. They set out to find a pair of women with similar inclinations to share the experience and expense. The first candidate is the silky Lady Caroline (Dagmara Dominczyk), a seemingly carefree "modern" blessed with both looks and means. The second is Mrs. Graves (Elizabeth Ashley), an exacting dowager with a penchant for name-dropping.

Act II opens with a flourish of applause as the audience realizes how set-starved they were for the first hour where a few sticks of good English furniture depicted the confines of their stuffy world. Upon closer inspection, however, scenic designer Tony Staiges' villa appears to have been hammered together on as tight a budget. Sunshine by lighting designer Rui Rita offers a warm glow, but the few sprigs of wisteria look rather forlorn.

The most colorful element of the Castello San Sebastiano is supplied by the maid Costanza, delightfully played by Patricia Conolly. Driven to distraction by the crotchety Mrs. Graves, Costanza serves up una buona porzione of laughs as she locks horns with the ornery guest. Ashley's interpretation of the prickly Victorian stirs in a pinch of Spanish moss to her English tea. Though quite a character, this Mrs. Graves gives us little sense of a woman sadly displaced by time.

ENCHANTED APRIL is a play that appeals to the matinee-side of the theatre brain. Barber's script is undoubtedly shackled by the original material and what little subtext there is seems to fade away as the story unfolds. One gets the sense that the writer would have like to more fully examine the emerging independence of Lotty and Rose. Instead, after arriving in Italy, their main concern is to reconnect with their insipid husbands and all too predictably rediscover the value of being a dutiful wife.

Even Lady Caroline, with her "I'm through with men" attitude, relinquishes and finds love when the owner of San Sebastiano, Antony Wilding (Michael Hayden), pays an unexpected visit. Although initially attracted to Mrs. Arnott, Wilding's eye quickly shifts to Caroline after Rose's husband Frederick shows up and their love is rekindled.

ENCHANTED APRIL does display a delightfully adorable quality that helps one overlook its shortcomings and the "marvelous" performance by Jayne Atkinson makes it all the more easy. Her Lotty Wilton sees things in other characters and Atkinson allows us to see in her the conflict between girlish optimism and womanly pragmatism.

Molly Ringwald's Rose Arnott, described as a "disappointed Madonna," effectively portrays a tightly laced Edwardian anxious to burst out of her corset. Cumpsty and Gerroll make the most of their one-dimensional characters. Hayden offers polished looks for a role that offers little more. Costumes by Jess Goldstein are quite sumptuous. And, director Wilson deserves much credit for enlivening this rather dated story. ENCHANTED APRIL, a frothy cappuccino minus the caffeine.