New York.
For once the America of big business can wait; in the spotlight there’s Philip Mazzei, who is historically and affectionately remembered as “the Florentine who made America”.
“Philip Mazzei” is an intelligent, fast paced and enjoyable musical. The story begins some time after the arrival of the Mazzeis in Virginia, the father, mother and daughter Peggy, arriving in 1773 to follow Philip’s dream: making Virginia into an agricultural Eden along the lines of Tuscany. And finishing with Mazzei being given the task of knocking on the doors of European royalty asking from their coffers help with the revolution against London.

The lead plot line deals with Peggy and all the difficulties that a London teenager can come up against in the culturally backward Virginia of the time. Amanda O’Callaghan portrays her character with a freshness and an exhilarating balance between the serious and the facetious: she takes the “mickey” out of her tedious suitor, she locks horns with her Father demanding at the top of her voice to be sent back to Europe, she is made fun of by the local women for her extrovert ways and ostentatious dress, she even goes up to cheekily offer herself to an Indian chief, whose standpoint politically speaking couldn’t be further from her father’s, who stands alongside the thirteen colonies. However, in the end it begins to dawn on her that although America is still muddy, it will, in a short time, be Europe that is left behind in the muck.
Lucas Tannous, a tenor of Libanese origin, carries off a respectable performance as Mazzei thanks to his many musical talents. Jenn Z. Habeck is good in the role of a petulant and intolerant town lady. But, maybe the most profound scenes are with the difficult dialogue between Peggy and John Brandt (Blair Boone), chief of the Mahwahs, who despite being attracted to the young girl, does not give into his feelings, proud in his role of Indian chief and keeper of traditions that cannot be renounced.
“Mazzei” wins his battle to make himself of use through words, with his articles in the Virginia Gazette praising democracy, and in the end becomes ambassador for the United States to France.
The entire cast have put on a clear, lucid work in which the music supports the story with a spell-binding energy. Ron McIntyre has created a mix of genres belonging to the past, essentially jazz, but also distinctively soul and gospel, with a perfect balance between dialogue and instruments, where neither the music nor the words drown each other out.
Who knows, this time, given the artistic and historic qualities, as well as the “trans-oceanic” aspect of the work, others may don the cape of the producing- publishing “Philip Mazzei”, who as the subtitle to the work says was “An Italian American World Hero”.

by Giuseppe Greco
from America Oggi 25.07.2007

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