It is with fingers still trembling from the shocking conclusion of the new musical “Monte Cristo” that I type this review. Naturally, a two-hour adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s “The Count of Monte Cristo,” whose Penguin Classics edition clocks in at 1,312 pages, is going to have to trim some of the story’s innumerable subplots and Byzantine twists. What’s important is to stay true to the spirit of Dumas’s tale of injustice, vengeance and redemption, which ends on a bittersweet note.
The York Theater production that just opened, however, didn’t get that memo. Imagine a stage version of “Gone With the Wind” in which Scarlett and Rhett run off together, or a “Casablanca” with Rick boarding the plane to stay with Ilsa. That is the equivalent of what Peter Kellogg, the “Monte Cristo” book writer and lyricist, presents, in a departure from Dumas’s original (published in serial form from 1844-46). Generally, he seems to lean on Charles Fechter’s 19th-century play variation, which is not a good idea.
The story’s elevator pitch is deceptively simple. Framed by Danglars (James Judy) and Fernand (Daniel Yearwood), the young Edmund (Adam Jacobs, the original star of Broadway’s “Aladdin”) is sent to prison, where he spends 18 years. After finally escaping, Edmund reinvents himself as the Count of Monte Cristo. Thanks to his riches — his new name refers to the Mediterranean island where he found a hidden treasure — he can devise an elaborate plan to bring down Danglars and Fernand, as well as the royal prosecutor, Villefort (a commanding Norm Lewis), who declared him guilty. Edmund has a new companion, Haydee (the excellent Stephanie Jae Park). But he is still in love with his old flame, Mercedes (Sierra Boggess, extending her hot streak), who, thinking him dead, married the duplicitous Fernand and raised a son, Albert (Jadon Lopez).
The director, Peter Flynn, keeps the show moving at a rapid clip, if only because there are many plot points and even more numbers (sung by an excellent cast of singers) to get through. An addictive page-turner with a flame that’s hard to dampen, the Dumas novel scrutinizes the push and pull of revenge and forgiveness, salvation and damnation. It’s also an oft-adapted pop-culture mainstay, whose latest screen versions include a terrific French feature from 2024 and a mini-series currently running on PBS. Two musicals, “La Légende de Monte-Cristo” and “Monte-Cristo — Le Spectacle Musical,” are running in Dumas’s native France, while Frank Wildhorn and Jack Murphy’s adaptation (with an ending similar to the one here) has traveled the world since 2009.
This new iteration benefits from music, by Stephen Weiner, that somewhat refreshingly ignores current pop-rock sounds and, at its best, evokes a fleeter-footed take on the pomp of the 1980s mega-musicals. Too often, though, pedestrian lyrics drag down the songs — try not to snicker at Edmund singing to Mercedes, “You are the wind that fills my sails,” especially with “Beaches” rounding the Broadway corner.
Still, a cast recording may find an audience, especially since Kellogg’s worst clunkers are in the book, including minor infractions like Villefort anachronistically referring to Napoleon as a “narcissist.” More consequential offenses involve the repetitive recourse to broad comic relief, usually via two key characters played by Danny Rutigliano: Edmund’s erudite prison mentor and his ally, Caderousse (whose wife, played by Karen Ziemba, endows with welcome verve). Something that was most likely not intended as part of the comedy but did make me chortle was the sight of Danglars’s daughter, Eugenie (Kate Fitzgerald), looking about to join a tour of “Newsies” after experiencing a life-changing epiphany.
And of course there is the overly romanticized resolution, which offers what some clearly consider to be the One True Pairing. Perhaps the way to refer to this “Monte Cristo” is not so much as an adaptation but as fan fiction.
The Count of Monte Cristo Through April 5 at the Theater at St. Jean’s, Manhattan; yorktheatre.org. Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes.
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