By Dan Shaw Without baring her famous legs or a single high-step, Chita Rivera razzle-dazzles us in Williamstown Theatre Festival’s production of Kander & Ebb’s The Visit. As Claire Zachanassian, the richest women in the world who has returned to the small, down-on-its-luck European village where she grew up, Rivera is perfectly cast as the formidable grande dame who seeks revenge on the man who deflowered and disappointed her when she was 17. As soon as you take your seat in the ’62 Center, Bruce Pask’s haunting set transports you to a small town in Europe that’s obviously on the brink of collapse. The glass is cracked in the roof of a once grand public space — perhaps the train station or central market — and the columns are overgrown with vines. There is a profound sense of desperation. The villagers make it clear in the opening numbers that they have become permanently disillusioned but are suddenly optimistic by the prospect of the billionaire Claire Zachanassian returning home. The possibility that she will save them is the only good news they’ve heard in years.
As Anton Schell, the man who broke her heart by marrying a once prosperous shopkeeper’s daughter instead of Claire (who was treated like a second class citizen growing up because she was half Jewish, half Gypsy and poor), Roger Rees still charms even as we begin to understand the depths of his cruel betrayal. Claire wants them to revisit their old trysting places, and it seems that it may not be too late for them to rekindle their youthful infatuation, which is underscored by the presence of two actors playing their younger selves onstage for the entire show. The memory of young love can never be forgotten. But neither can a broken heart. Claire offers to give billions to the town if the villagers will sacrifice Anton, which at first seems preposterous and beyond the pale. But Terrence McNally’s book (based on the play by Friedrich Durrenmatt that was brought to Broadway in 1958 by Peter Brook in a translation by Maurice Valency) presents the situation as a moral dilemma resolved with a surprising inevitability. Directed by Tony Award-winner John Doyle and choreographed by Graciela Daniele, The Visit floats along like a long, complicated but entirely rational dream. Certainly, there’s a surreal quality to the story as personified by two eunuchs in formalwear and yellow platform shoes who travel with Claire; they're evidence of her power and peculiarities. Kander & Ebb’s songs are lush and captivating (although they are not listed by title in the program) with faint echoes of Cabaret and Chicago but only one number called “Yellow Shoes" has what you’d call razzmatazz. The Visit, a contemporary musical that’s as highly stylized as an opera, is intimate and grand, cerebral and seductive. A showcase for the 81-year-old Rivera, the performance proves (as if there were any doubt) that she’s a genuine legend of the American stage. As so often happens at Williasmstown, you will leave the theater surprised that you are in the country and not Times Square because you’d swear you just saw the season’s most buzzed-about Broadway show. The VisitWilliamstown Theatre Festival'62 Center for Theatre and Dance 1000 Main Street (Route 2), Williamstown, MA 413-597-3400
