Also this issue:

On the Job
Publicist and performer Christine Barbush is taking on Philly’s arts scene.
-Trish Boppert

Modern Marvel
Munakata Shiko's prints illuminate the PMA.
-Susan Hagen

Time/Travel
-Morgen Rossmair

Mary Knott
-Paul Burress

Kafka's Dick
-Toby Zinman

August 15-21, 2002

artpicks

Camelot/Broadway Love Affair

by Debra Auspitz

It's mid-August, a couple of weeks before the Fringe Festival and then we're into the start of next season. Theater and dance companies all over the city have retreated into rehearsal spaces to prepare for the explosion of activity to come. So where does that leave the poor citizens of Philadelphia, looking for a theater or dance opening right now? Well, a gaggle of shows opened last week, including Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (see review, p. 32), Kafka's Dick (see review, p. 32) and Stage Struck (see review, p. 33). If you're looking for the newest thing, you might have to settle for the oldest thing -- classic, unapologetically cheesy musicals. Hey, musicals are big right now (even Buffy had one), and summer is the perfect time to give in to the toe-tapping, chord-swelling, often completely nonsensical world of musical theater. Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope (look for leftover crop circles when you go) hosts a summer full of musicals, and this week they open Lerner and Loewe's Camelot. The show doesn't have as many catchy tunes as Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady or the vastly underrated Brigadoon (OK, maybe not vastly), but it's still an undeniable classic. Forever associated with Robert Goulet as Lancelot (he played the role in the 1960 original with Julie Andrews and Richard Burton and has appeared in revivals of the show for years), Camelot takes the tales of King Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot and adds in the fantastical element of the musical (you know, where it's totally normal to break into song in the middle of a conversation).

If you're the type of musical viewer who likes the big numbers but gets bored during the exposition, you can head over to Bristol Riverside Theatre (which just picked up a slew of Barrymore nominations for its production of The Dresser last season) for Broadway Love Affair, a concert celebrating Broadway musicals. The summertime revue of Broadway hits is as much a tradition as performing the shows themselves, and in the best cases the showstoppers are performed in a somewhat equal ratio to the lesser known, quieter gems. With nothing from Cats. And hopefully something from Brigadoon.

Camelot, through Aug. 25, $20-$22, Bucks County Playhouse, 70 S. Main St., New Hope, 215-862-2041; Broadway Love Affair, through Aug. 25, $25, Bristol Riverside Theatre, 120 Radcliffe St., Bristol, 215-785-0100.