The University of Tampa’s theater company left me questioning the source of my laughter on Monday night after I previewed a final dress rehearsal of this spring’s musical, Candide.
Based on the well-known French satire, Candide, ou l’Optimisme (translated Candide: or The Optimist) by the eighteenth century philosopher Voltaire, it depicts the capricious journey of a jaunty young boy and his quest to live a life in “the best of all possible worlds.”
After a playful introduction to some worldly and misfit characters, Candide’s tutor Pangloss (Treven Cooper, adjunct) opens the show to a classroom filled with several of Candide’s budding adolescent friends. Candide is played by freshman Gabe Saienni.
One girl in particular, Cunégonde (Kate Gordon, senior), sparks a juvenile infatuation with our optimist, teaching him to question his emotions.
As a result of kissing the girl, Candide finds himself banished from the castle and sentenced to death. (Remind anyone else of a pair of star-crossed lovers?)
It is the incessant confidence of our protagonist that causes the story to move forward, despite his repeated encounters with anguish and death.
It doesn’t take more than the first couple of scenes to realize that the boy and his Little Bo Peep-ish love interest won’t be separated for long in their land of milk and honey.
Spending his life traveling the world in search of Cunégonde, Candide leaves Europe for the Americas, but eventually journeys back to Europe and the Ottoman Empire.
But the pier de resistance of this calamity was when an old woman (Lyndsay Magid, senior) introduces Cunégonde to a life of prostitution.
Her relations with a religious official is a comedic mockery of religious charades.
I wasn’t surprised by her transition from innocent schoolgirl to whore in a high-class brothel.
I was just shocked it didn’t happen earlier in the show. But if that were the case, this musical wouldn’t be the satire Candide, it would be Sweet Charity.
In the end, I felt this farce was less like a Shakespearian masterpiece and more like a French version of the Romper Room.
With the over-the-top singing, jumbled dance numbers and attempts at sardonic irony, I hope audiences end up laughing as hard as I did.
Candide can be seen Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. with a matinee on Sunday at 2 p.m in the David Falk Theater.
Tickets are free for all UT students, faculty and staff with proof of their Spartan ID cards. General admission is $10.
Mike Trobiano can be reached at mike.trobiano@gmail.com.