Review: 'Aida' is a musical for those hopelessly romantic types

MERRIE LEININGER
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 3/18/2007

Those who hold the tragic love stories of Romeo and Juliet and Tristan and Isolde close to their hearts will love "Aida."

The musical opened its three-day run at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Reno on Friday night to a packed house of romantics who gave the cast a standing ovation at the end of the 2 1/2 hour performance.

The touring company features Marja Harmon, who has the bearing to pull off the starring role as a Nubian princess who has been captured by a Egyptian captain named Radames (Casey Elliott).

While she keeps her noble birth a secret, Radames can immediately see there is something special about Aida. (Or as the old man next to me whispered to his wife: 'She's something else!')

Radames is fascinated by her strength when she attempts to save her friends, who were also captured, by taking a solider hostage. He gives her as a gift to the Egyptian princess, Amneris (Leah Allers), who is a childhood friend with a major crush on the captain.

Aida immediately impresses Amneris with her poise and knowledge and they become close, despite Amneris' shallowness and selfishness.

"Forget the inside," Amneris sings in a fun dance number/runway show with Motown-style backup singers, "I am what I wear and how I dress." Amneris' dreams come true when her ailing father announces that she will marry Radames in seven days. Meanwhile, every time the new slave, Aida, runs into her captor in the palace, their attraction becomes more clear to both of them.

Radames tries to shake off his inappropriate feelings for a slave and goes to Amneris' chambers, but Aida is there and he leaves without making love to Amneris, much to her frustration.

"If the royal cartographer drew you a map of the female body, would you be more inclined to go explore?" she pouts.

Despite these wonderfully silly moments with Princess Amneris, the play is powerful and moving, especially as the second half rushes to its sad conclusion.

Allers, who plays Amneris, has a strong voice that is clear with a wide range and she makes the most of it, while not going overboard.

The more dramatic parts do tend to cross over into melodrama, but not too often. And it served its purpose because the whole audience was hushed and caught up in the lovers' fate in the final moments.

The ensemble cast is strong -- all have great voices and many of them are great dancers. The dancers not only leapt and twirled during the big songs, but also took the stage between each scene, I imagine to give the starring actors time to change costumes. Some of the big numbers seemed more appropriate for an 1980s Paula Abdul video, but the more quiet moments, which incorporated Middle Eastern and African movements, were beautiful.

The last couple of scenes do away with everything except the two lovers. Aida and Radame quietly face their deaths in the dark and promise to find each other in their next lives. And then, in a flash to the future, we see that they do.