Floyd Collins

Theater review: HART's “Floyd Collins” is deep and dark

Jim Cavener • published October 9, 2008 1:15 pm

- Each October the highly-successful Haywood County theatrical troupe, Haywood Arts Regional Theatre, gives us something unusual. Sometimes it's daring in concept and content and it's almost always dark and brooding. It was never more so than in the current musical enterprise “Floyd Collins.”

“Floyd Collins” is based on a real-life event from the 1920s when a young Kentucky man was trapped in a deep, dark, damp cavern and the journalism of the day made a veritable circus of his plight. The discovery and commercialization of Mammoth Cave in central Kentucky inspired many an ambitious land owner to want to capitalize on the appeal of mysterious caverns. The county fair/carnival atmosphere of the region was only exacerbated by this media attraction. The production is as deep and dark as the cavern. Not a feel-good show, for sure,

Composer Adam Guettel, is the grandson of Richard Rodgers, one of the 20th century's most prolific and successful musical theater composers. But his current work much more resembles that of Stephen Sondheim than it does those famed Rodgers and Hammerstein melodies.

From the opening tones of the pit orchestra, ably conducted by Chuck Taft, it's clear this is not typical theater music.The musical ensemble has no brass or woodwinds. It's all strings, and percussion. It is a lovely experience to hear this capable ensemble melding period Kentucky folk music with modern theater sounds. The music is demanding and the vocal demands exceed that of the instrumentalists.

Fortunately, HART was able to cast several highly trained singers in key roles. The title role of Floyd is a challenge for any singer. Much of Floyd's best singing is done while he is trapped on his back, and actor Rod Leigh sings quite effectively with limited diaphragm control. He's a treasure, for sure. His brother, Homer, is done compellingly by Mark Jones, last seen as the Emcee in last October's quite dark version of the musical “Cabaret.”

Frances Davis and Adrienne Mollette deliver the female tunes with great effectiveness. While Rick Sibley, Preston Tinsley, Roger Williams, Joanthan Milner and Cord Scott don't have to tackle the most difficult melodies, they are credible actors, as are Ricky Sanford, Strother Stingley, Andrew Greene and Roger Magendie. It's not a huge cast but director Charles Mills found some significant talent for this show.

Much of the plot line is delivered as recitative, and often the words just don't make it past the pit. It is hard to capture all the libretto, which is a pity given the nature of a complex script. Yet, much of the emotion and meaning is transparent and not dependent on spoken word. Despite the dark theme, there are moments of occasional lightness to carry us beyond the depressing dialogue between tragedy and hope.

The operatic quality of the vocal work is impressive, and the more surprising being set in such a non-traditional locale. Central Kentucky, much of it underground, dark, deep and damp. A good pre-Halloween show is this one.