THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 8, 1995 TAG: 9506060090
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: Montague Gammon III
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
High school teachers who would like to spur class discussions might find the short new musical titled simply ``The Holocaust'' a most effective teaching tool. The material this one-act piece has adapted from Martin Gilbert's non-fiction book of the same name is probably too intense for junior high audiences, but it is neither too simple nor too superficial to interest adults.
If it seems strange to mention a musical about the death of six million people, remember that musical theatre is not necessarily musical comedy. The songs written by composer, author and director Chip Gallagher range from the poignant to the chilling but are always appropriate to the gravity of their subject. Jeff Warner's graceful choreography is well done.
The performances last weekend, by a company of two dozen students in the Governor's School for the Arts Performing Arts program, were certainly worthy of attention. Many of the voices were equal to almost any to be found in local theaters.
Natalie Phillips, as a Jewish mother giving her 10-year-old son into the care of a Gentile family, displayed the same rich, mature sound that helped make her appearance in the magnet school's ``Anything Goes'' memorable.
Phillips also demonstrated genuine acting ability and tasteful restraint, as did Jennifer Miller and Andrew Odom in their central roles. Miller and Odom are both strong singers; Odom's tenor is especially notable.
Mention of Miller and Odom leads inevitably to mention of the script's central premise, that their characters were frozen in Nazi experiments and recently revived from their half-century of cryogenic (super-cold) suspended animation. Miller plays Ms. Greenspan, a young Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz. Odom's role is that of the unsubtly named Hugh M. Race, a German citizen who apparently lived near the same camp and who, the script tells us, volunteered for the experiment.
Once revived, Race is brought to trial in ``The World Court'' for crimes against humanity because he knew about the concentration camps but took no action to stop the murders. His defense is that it would have been suicide for him to have spoken out. Greenspan testifies against him. The audience is asked to serve as the jury.
A telling compliment due this cast is that one quickly forgets the tenuousness of this plot line, which raises the concept of being farfetched to new orders of magnitude. The tale must have been contrived so that these performers would not need to play characters much older than themselves, and so that the familiar gimmick of an audience being a jury could be used.
Yet the story line raises several questions that it does not attempt to answer. Why, for example, did Race volunteer for the obviously dangerous cryogenic experiment? Was it perhaps out of a sense of guilt, or a need to escape the shocking events he witnessed? (He tells with genuine horror of the murder of Jewish babies by the Nazis.)
Does he allow himself to be tried for similar reasons? Any competent lawyer could tie up such a proceeding in a walter of questions about jurisdiction and statutes of limitations.
What happened to Greenspan's young brother, the 10-year-old mentioned above? If he survived the war, he would now be in his 60s. His memories would have been a fascinating counterpoint to those of Race and Greenspan.
Yet the real point of ``The Holocaust'' is unaffected by such quibbling, though these lines of inquiry suggest ways the play could be expanded or revised, or upon which a sequel could be constructed.
This musical exists for two reasons: one, as it is a commonplace to mention where scholastic theater is concerned, is for the education of its participants; the other is to relate factual events in a dramatic form, and to spur discussion of them. It accomplishes these goals most effectively, in a format that lends itself to touring perfor-mances. ILLUSTRATION: AT A GLANCE
What: ``The Holocaust,'' by Chip Gallagher.
Where: Governor's School Theatre, 354 Granby St.
Information: 683-5549.
by CNB