Once in a great while, you come across an actor, and no matter where you’re actually seeing her, you’re really seeing her on a Broadway stage.
Courtney Davis is one of those rare finds. Starring in Disney’s “Aida,” the dinner theater in a Fort Collins industrial complex might as well be the Palace Theatre in Times Square.
Davis plays an enslaved Nubian princess who falls into a fated, forbidden romance with her brutal Egyptian captor, Radames. When she wails the showstopping spiritual, “The Gods Love Nubia”; when she sings of betraying the man she loves, “Easy as Life”; when she carries off her every line with the poise, elegance and evident intellect of the princess she embodies, it’s easy to imagine her on Broadway.
We shouldn’t be surprised — the Highlands Ranch native studied under Denver Center actor-turned-professor Jamie Horton at Dartmouth.
The Carousel Dinner Theatre’s ambitious production is a fitting farewell before moving into its swank new Midtown Arts Center next month. But it does not rise in all ways to Davis’ level — curious artistic choices and the glaring inadequacy of the musical itself prevent that.
In many ways, Davis is swimming in the deepest end of a very shallow pool.
Let’s just get this out of the way: I don’t like “Aida.” I stand by my words in 2006, when I said Disney’s gross mutation of Verdi’s tragic opera is like taking a bubble bath in the Nile River.
But you should know that Disney’s juggernaut, which grossed $165 million on Broadway, is in fact an adaptation of a children’s-storybook variation on Verdi’s opera, and it shows. Disney and Elton John have turned it into a sassy, squeaky-clean Vegas spectacular that imagines the slave Aida as a frustratingly contemporary, all-but-American feminist heroine in ancient Egypt.
It’s galling how Disney can homogenize any world culture by churning it through its formulaic machine. And it’s galling how it can rip off everything from “Jesus Christ Superstar” to “West Side Story” to “Beauty and the Beast.”
This is a serious and historically relevant story of two people who are buried alive as punishment for their love. How do you mess that up? Just add Disney.
But to be fair, this musical does right many of its wrongs by its undeniably powerful end. Even if its anachronisms are maddening.
Director Kenneth Moten’s big three of Davis, Rob Riney and Sarah Armstrong all have big voices. Armstrong plays Amneris, who inherits Aida as a gift from her betrothed, Radames (Riney).
Armstrong’s transformation from a ditsy, selfish showgirl — think “Legally Brunette” — is impressive. When she sings “I Know the Truth,” owning up to her lost love, it hits all the way home.
But while the cherubic Riney blends seamlessly with Davis’ voice on ballads like “Elaborate Lives,” he lacks the matching gravitas to fully convince us he’s a barbarous world conqueror brought down by love and conscience. And he speeds through his lines like he has a pressing after-show engagement.
Moten and his choreographer further separate “Aida” from any place of cultural or geographical truth with stylized choices that combine ballet with MTV. When the Egyptian-soldier chorus boys bust moves like they’re backing up Beyoncé in her latest music video, you appreciate the energy and obvious talent. But when they twirl their spears and vogue, you can’t help but feel Verdi’s story floating farther down the river.
It does look good, thanks to set designer Nicholas Kargel’s evocative motif of lining the back of the stage with simple, flowing fabrics that chorus members hang in various ways to depict different story locations. Paul Falk leads a fine band of four.
But as the story grows more desperate, so too does the acting, which at times borders on the hysteric when quieter expressions of royal fortitude might be more effective.
With so much going against it, it’s to everyone’s credit that Moten’s “Aida” manages to attain some level of emotional complexity by the finish.
In the end, it’s a musical as easily digestible as the Carousel’s twin roasted pork shanks.
Just the way Disney likes it.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“Aida” *** (out of four stars)
Disney musical. Carousel Dinner Theatre, 3509 S. Mason St., Fort Collins. Written by Elton John (music), Tim Rice (lyrics), and Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls and David Henry Hwang (book). Directed by Kenneth Moten. Through Nov. 20. 2 hours, 20 minutes. 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 1:45 p.m. Sunday (dinner 90 minutes before). $39-$44, desserts and upgrades extra. 970-225-2555 or
