Leap of Faith

Hallelujah! Praise the Hills! Hand over your money for a ticket, for ye shall be rewarded! What a great production.

Leap of Faith is the musical version of the Steve Martin movie, in which Martin’s fake preacher, Jonas Nightingale, runs a travelling tent revival show, bringing false hope and potential miracles to rural towns, all the while milking the locals for their money and getting out before the townspeople realise they’ve been duped. If the miracles don’t happen it’s not Nightingale’s fault: the locals simply didn’t believe hard enough. The show is set in America’s Deep South, where travelling tent revivals are the equivalent of circuses. The revivalists are forced to stop in the poor town of Sweetwater while their bus gets repaired. Nightingale becomes romantically involved with Marla, the town sheriff – a widow who lost her husband in a car crash and whose son is now wheelchair bound because of it. These events caused Marla to also lose her faith, and she sees right through Nightingale’s scam, despite her attraction to him.

Before you can say, “I’ve seen this before, but with 76 trombones” stop there. While there are some similarities in the plot, this is not The Music Man done gospel style.

Sort-of first time director Nick Yates and his team have dome a great job bringing this show to life. The cast is excellent, no one being miscast. David Bleier as Jonas does away with Steve Martin and makes the character his own, acting like he has shares in Red Bull and giving us the charisma to make me believe I can lose my extra kilos through prayer. Elizabeth Hogan as Marla is perfectly cast as a foil to Jonas’s con. I believed her confusion and struggles, both with her faith and with her relationship with Jonas. Penny Pettigrew, Emma Scarlis, Jacqueline Bramwell, Adam Haynes, and Luke Arthur in the other lead roles were all believable and in great voice. All the characters had difficult development arcs in the show, and these actors made their characters’ journeys look natural, also giving us credible shades of grey. The ensemble making up the townsfolk and Nightingale’s back-up choir, the Angels, was also effective and entertaining (Boshko Maksimovic’s leap of faith off the set at show end was a nice, though I suspect unintended, touch).

The accents were credible, with no one stooping to Southern Redneck Swamp Dweller, as were the mannerisms. I believed I was watching a group of Southerners. There was also effective use of video which, given how it was set up, could have been over-done. Keith Macbeth’s set design is effective and doesn’t upstage the cast (although I wondered how it would have worked if it had been given a splash of colour here or there), and Craig Nhobbs again shows why he is one of the most sought-after choreographers in Sydney.

But it was the singing that sold me. If you want an idea on how to sing Gospel and Broadway belt go hear this cast. Many times I hear “singers” attempt these styles and just get yelling, screaming, or (in the case of Gospel) sounding like the Vienna Boys’ Choir. This cast had the right control and tone in their voice, and hearing the cast deliver the finale was enough to inspire religious fervour. All the principals had their turn at belting out some gospel ’n’ blues but special mention must be made of Penny Pettigrew as Ida Mae Sturdevant  (her character has the lion’s share of the gospel), who deservedly brought the house down with her beautiful solos. Congratulations to MD David Russell for the choral work.

I had some reservations with the technical aspects: a lighting black spot centre-stage during scenes that were blocked there, and some of the costumes were not flattering to the some of the figures. Fans of Menken’s music may be disappointed he doesn’t dish up the ultra sweet pop ballads found in his earlier work (Little Shop of Horrors, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, etc). This is not that type of show, and the songs suit the characters and their emotions. Having said that, some of the slower songs outstay their welcome (do we really need all those extra verses?), but all is forgiven with the up-tempo material, especially the powerful opening and closing numbers.

Leap of Faith originally flopped on Broadway. Given the quality of the Hills production it’s hard to see why. I suspect it may have been a case of right show - wrong time, and the points it makes about faith, truth, and religion may have been a bit too close to the bone for some audiences. Many shows fared badly on their Broadway debut (hello Sondheim and Schwartz) but, just like certain flop movies when released on DVD (hello Austin Powers), they find success on the touring and amateur market. Here’s hoping the Hills premiere of this show will pave the way for other companies and schools to stage it.

Take the leap of faith to see this. To paraphrase the show, this will not only get you aroused but also get you off.

Peter Novakovich