For their final production of the season, which opened Friday night, the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society has taken an abrupt turn from its programming of the last few years. Gone are the kaleidoscope colours of The Wizard of Oz, the eye-candy costumes of Hello Dolly!, the fairy-tale magic of Cinderella and the popular 1950s nostalgia of Grease.
In their stead, Orpheus has chosen Rags, a gritty, often bleak, window on the grinding world of American immigration - in particular Jewish immigration - of a century ago.
When Rebecca Hershkowitz arrives at New York's Ellis Island with her young son, David, in 1910, her husband Nathan, who emigrated to the U.S. six years earlier, is not at the dock to greet her. The prospect of deportation back to Russia looming, the pair are saved by shipmates Bella Cohen and her father, Avram, who claim kinship to their fellow newcomers.
And so, as Rebecca searches for her truant husband, unfolds a composite story of the hardships facing immigrants as they dipped into the melting pot of the United States. She finds work in the garment industry, sewing shirts in a sweatshop for a pittance. Along the way, she meets Saul, a union organizer whose political agenda turns their relationship into a more social one.
The better life that Avram has promised Bella in the U.S., meanwhile, proves elusive for the young woman; her father refuses to allow her to return the affections of Ben, another immigrant, and rarely even permits her to go outside of their tenement apartment and into what he views as the dangerous streets of New York.
Nathan's arrival in the second act only further complicates things. Six years in the new country has assimilated him; he's changed his name to Harris, and works for union-busting, Tammany Hall hood Big Tim Sullivan. Nathan and his upward career have no time for Rebecca's low-class friends.
Scriptwriter Joseph Stein has neatly folded the personal stories of his characters into the larger events of the day: poor working conditions, the Great American Dream, the pressures of adapting to a new culture and, in a touching scene involving Bella, New York's infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, while director Michael Gareau's interpretation, notwithstanding somewhat lengthy first act, was sharp and well-acted.
Both Meredith Matthews and Robin Guy, as Rebecca and Bella, turned in admirable performances, as did Nathan Haller who, in the role of David, provided the play's narrative.
And while some of the musical's number were memorable - Avram and fruit-peddler Rachel's humorous Three Sunny Rooms, the Yiddish Shakespearean Company's Cheer Up Hamlet, and Ben and David's Yankee Boy all spring to mind - others were too saccharine, both lyrically and melodically. Rebecca's Children Of The Wind, for instance, although beautifully rendered by Matthews, had all the markings of an unholy alliance between Céline Dion and the Disney Corporation.
Still, it was refreshing to see Orpheus tackle such a meaty, non-traditional musical, and just as invigorating to witness the results.
Rags runs at Centrepointe Theatre until Saturday. Tickets for the 8 p.m. shows are $18 and $22 each. Student discounts are available Monday through Wednesday. Tickets can be purchased at the box office or by calling 580-2700.