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"The Black Monk" with Austin Pendleton opens

Craig, Pendleton and Rutberg Photo: Carol Rosegg)

Tonight I went to see the opening performance of a chamber musical called "The Black Monk."It is loosely based on a Anton Chekhov short story of the same name. I saw the original staged reading of this a couple of years ago and was intrigued, but aren't shows suppose to improve? This did not and all I can say is "what were they thinking? From the producers allowing this somber pieces to air during Christmas, to the casting director, director and musical director not realizing Austin Pendleton can not sing, to the non existence of lyric and tune. I took another reviewer with me and her opinion was the same as mine...why? The short story though morbid has a lot to say. This piece trivialized everything and made it trite. Every lyric was a cliche badly done and I longed for Sondheim's wit and tuneful disturbances. Imagine 17 songs and several reprises with  lyric's like Give yourself to art/Give yourself to me/Set yourself apart/That's where you must be." Elon Rutberg, Andrei is sung decently enough but he is not a leading man and Julie Craig's Tanya is plausible but she tends to be shrill and Wendy Kesselman (book, lyric's and music) tends to enjoy keeping soprano's in the stratosphere. I did like Scott Robertson as Igor and Austin Pendleton is just miscast or misdirected. I adore Austin and his presence makes you want to watch him, but the Black Monk is suppose to be menacing as well as seductive and charming. You want to hug him until he sings and you realize this is not a joke.