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JAM Academy’s production of the classic Dickensian tale came to life recently at the National Theatre in Santo Domingo. Emil Mella offers us an insightful review:
Last year, I saw for the first time a production put on by Santo Domingo-based drama school JAM Academy, a lovely production of Beauty and the Beast, held in the historic Eduardo Brito National Theatre in the Carlos Piantini Main Hall, and was reasonably impressed, the cast did a great job of it all, and by what seemed like magic, a massive crew of young children danced around in unison almost perfectly. On the overall, the play was, by all means, a success.
This year, JAM proved that Beauty and the Beast was in no way a fluke, with their 2014 production Oliver!, a musical adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic Oliver Twist, raising the already high bar set by the previous production.
Where do I even begin? The sets, designed by Angela Bernal and created by Carlos Ortega, morphed the stage into a sort of massive window into the worn down, Victorian London the story takes place in.
JAM upped the ante as well when it came to music, with pre-recorded tracks having been replaced by a sixteen-piece orchestra directed by no other than the indomitable Dante Cucurullo, who stood before us all, leading the orchestra with aplomb. The musicians themselves never seemed to skip a beat. Every note they played mattered every bit as much as the notes they didn’t, their occasional sudden silence stunning the audience into silence as well, eyes wide as we watched the actors masterfully bring the often intense drama of the tale to life.
And, speaking of the actors, JAM once again left us all astounded, with actors of a large range of ages bringing their talents to the table. As seen in Beauty, we again witness JAM Director Elizabeth Sanchez’s ability for taking a cast of countless kids and somehow magically transforming them into a tried-and-true theatre troupe, singing and dancing and tapping across the stage.
The older kids, however, weren’t going to let themselves get behind, filling up the major roles with a delightful expertise that left viewers forgetting these were even teenagers at all! The titular role of Oliver Twist was taken by Megan Sánchez, who took to the main role (and the spotlight it brought) with a professionalism rarely seen in such a young actress, handling various complicated songs and dances and being onstage longer than any other actor or actress in the entire production.
The roles of Fagin, Bill Sykes, the Widow Corney, and Mr. Brownlow were performed delightfully well by some of JAM’s slightly more senior actors and actresses, these being Joaquín Ruiz, Carlos Martínez, Francesca Yarull (who alternated as Nancy on other nights, but did a fantastic job as the Widow), and José Lantigua, respectively.
Two roles, however, still stick out in my mind, by the absolute mastery brought to the both of them, these being that of the miserly Mr. Bumble, who was played by Gabriel George, and of Nancy, played by Laura Pernas (and, as previously mentioned, by Francesca Yarull on other productions).
George gave the often over-the-top, ridiculous character of Mr. Bumble a fantastically cartoonish interpretation, bouncing around the stage, huffing his chest up when in anger, and gesticulating wildly (and I mean that in the nicest sense of the term) through and through.
Laura Pernas, in interpreting the role of Nancy, was constantly on point with the role, which isn’t at all easy, considering Nancy did everything from sing and dance around on top of tables in a happy bar, to forcibly dragging Oliver to a criminal’s den, to holding Bill Sykes and Fagin at knifepoint, to singing two slow-moving, gorgeous solo songs. So, just performing the wide range of character that lies in Nancy is an impressive feat, but the young actress delivered her lines, songs, and dances with astounding fluidity and mastery, through and through.
So, to sum up, the production was a through and through success, the only negative thing that even comes to mind was a technical difficulty with the set near the play’s beginning, but that’s hardly anyone’s fault, and it didn’t even come near staining the musical’s resounding success in its overall delivery. Congratulations to Elizabeth Sánchez and JAM Academy for all of your hard work, it’s been twenty-four hours and I’m still gushing about this lovely play.
I can’t recommend it, considering that the play’s short run is now over, but I also can’t recommend the production any more highly for the discerning time traveler, looking for something to do after killing Hitler and witnessing the height of the Roman Empire.
Photography by Ernesto Sánchez.