For the very first production of the 2015-2016 Philadelphia Walnut Street Theatre season, the musical High Society was charming, romantic, adorable and humorous.
The musical High Society takes place in the year of 1938 in a wealthy estate in Oyster Bay and focuses on the eldest daughter, Tracy Lord, portrayed by Meghan Nichol Arnoldy, who is about to get married.
Commotion begins however, when she is re-visited by her ex-husband who is still madly in-love with her.
Dexter who was portrayed by Paul Schaefer, was a character that many audience members could relate to as the former husband of Tracy Lord, who still had unresolved feelings for her. .
Things don’t get easier, when a reporter and photographer for a magazine hold information regarding Tracy’s father, who is trying to hide his secrets from the public.
Megan Nicole Arnoldy, may not have been not have put a lot of personality into her lines, but her singing voice was beautiful and she was also very comfortable with her change in costumes.
In Act Two of the musical, Tracy wore an exquisite red gown, which she was able to jump on the table in the kitchen wearing, and dance with the rest of the cast.
Arnoldy also had great chemistry with every single one of her cast members, from her well -mannered fiancé George Kittridge played by Jon Reinhold to her estranged father Seth Lord, who was played by Dan Olmstead and her quiet and sweet, loving mother, Margaret who was played beautifully by Grace Gonglewski.
Indeed, her chemistry with Dexter, portraryed by Paul Schafer was extremely realistic, beautiful, inspiring and romantic.
Paul Schafer presented a charming, romantic and seductive middle-aged man onstage; and had the audience falling in love with him as he sang, “What Is This Thing Called Love?” and “Once Upon a Time.”
The acting, which was the strongest element in the show, created a lively, colorful and exciting plot, clever one liners and a realistic portrayal of how the rich live.
The performance would not have been complete however, without the ensemble cast members who played maids, butlers and cooks in the show. Every member knew the choreography and were in tune.
Though the plot was hilarious and the acting, singing and choreography was very strong, the confusing set designs took away from the rest of this production.
The story focused on a wealthy family in 1938, but the scene design before the curtain went up did not use the same colors that were used in the playbill: golds, blues, pinks, or lavender, which would be considered to be luxurious and rich colors to use for a production focusing on a wealthy family.
However, the scene designs during the show did display these colors and white wicker pavilion chairs, rich colored furniture, a large swimming pool and even a tennis pavilion, to show off the wealth of the characters.
Since the story took place in June instead of Autumn, the use of colorful leaves covering the stage and a backdrop showing red flowers, green, yellow and orange leaves, made the setting confusing. This also kept the audience from feeling immersed in the world.
The set designs also did not do much for the Contemporary Theatre itself which is easily influenced by the physical aspects of the set on stage. If the scene designers would have used the gold, blue, pink and lavender colors seen in the show’s playbill, the theatre would have more easily portrayed a wealthier class.
The lighting techniques were extremely realistic, with the use of small overhead spotlights to produce stars while the rest of the stage was dark, lights coming from lamps and chandeliers inside of the house and the use of natural light to show that the scene was happening during the day.
Each one of the characters were perfectly lit onstage as well and knew how to control their movements onstage so they would still be seen by the audience even if the lights were not on them.
The text was mostly created through words, costumes and lines, but this was not enough to present a strong production and one that the audience would have wanted to see again. Therefore, the limited number of props and the confusing set designs created a lot of confusion for the audience as well.
Instead of only using champagne glasses, wine bottles and a miniature boat, the visual elements of the production would have fit together seamlessly with the rest of the production.
This production was enjoyable to see due to the strong performances by each of the actors and actresses, the lighting techniques were strong and the elegant costume design. However, the show hindered in set design and other visual effects. I would recommend this show to anyone who is interested in a fun, romantic musical comedy.