There's no question that the love affairs of the rich and famous have long fascinated those of us who are on the outside looking in. So it's not surprising that the fiery romance between world-class opera diva Maria Callas and shipping magnate, enigmatic tycoon Aristotle Onassis captivated a an always curious public 50 years ago, nor is it remarkable that audiences attending Triangle Productions new musical "Ari – Maria" (with book and lyrics by Donnie and music and additional lyrics by Jonathan Quesenberry) might be equally enthralled by the passionate interactions of these two charismatic Greek celebrities, whose stars flashed so brightly in the 1960s and 1970s.
Ari-Maria
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through May 26
Where: The Sanctuary at Sandy Plaza, 1785 N.E. Sandy Blvd.
Tickets: $15-35, 503-239-5919, www. tripro.org
Donnie (Donald Horn) gives us an entertaining book that chronicles biographical events while zeroing in on the underlying romantic drama, which turns out to be a rather one-sided love story. The play traces the ups and downs of Onassis and Callas's love affair from their first meeting at a soiree organized by notorious gossip-columnist Elsa Maxwellin 1957 until Onassis abandoned Callas to marry Jacqueline Kennedy in 1968. But ultimately "Ari – Maria" highlights the heart-rending almost tragic devotion of Callas (played movingly by Amy Jo Halliday) to a self-centered, ambitious Onassis, who as played by Bruce Blanchard is at times gruffly charming and needy but genuinely unable to love anyone other than his children by his first wife.
To set the mood and convey background information, Donnie resorts to an ever-present narrator, Friend, who functions in a manner perhaps appropriate to this tale of larger-than-life Greeks as something akin to a Greek tragic chorus. This choral figure played with elegant finesse by Michelle Maida occasionally takes part in the action by becoming a confidante who tries to warn Callas away from Aristotle but generally speaks directly to the audience. While Maida handles this character's interaction with the audience smoothly, the presence of this character merely as a device to deliver exposition at times seems a bit clumsy. On these occasions, the need for biographical explanation overshadows the plays internal drama.
Still as befits a play about Maria Callas, this is a musical drama and with Quesenberry's evocative score, it's the musical numbers that really drive the play's action forward. Halliday as Callas does beautifully with Puccini and Bellini operatic songs, but she's equally commanding in her performance of Donnie and Quesenberry songs. Her rendition of "Baby, Ari, Me" concluding Act I is heart-wrenching and her musical cat-fight duet with Erin Oleson who plays Lee Radizwell – Jackie Kennedy's sister, a princess in her own right, and another of Onassis's lovers – is lots of fun. Halliday really excels with her energetic, defiant "But a Woman" that gives the end of Act II a driving emotional crescendo.
In his musical numbers, Bruce Blanchard with his robust resonant voice gives the charismatic, powerfully ambitious Onassis clear musical form, and as Callas's forsaken but proud husband Giovanni Battista Meneghini, Gary Wayne Cash sensitively captures the pathos of Giovanni's lyrical lament "What Am I (I Wait for Spring)."