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North Coast Rep planning scaled-down but fully realized production of ‘Camelot’

Among the many celebrated Broadway musicals Jeffrey B. Moss has directed, including “South Pacific,” “Man of La Mancha,” “Guys and Dolls” and “Damn Yankees,” are two of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s best: “My Fair Lady” and “Brigadoon.”

But this month at North Coast Repertory Theatre, Moss is directing Lerner and Loewe’s 1960 classic “Camelot” for the very first time.

“It’s exciting,” said Moss. “I’m like an audience. When you get the right artists doing these parts it’s like ‘Oh, that’s what this song is about.’”

Heading the artists in North Coast Rep’s “Camelot” is Jered McLenigan, who portrays the legendary King Arthur in the musical adaptation of T.H. White’s fantasy novel “The Once and Future King.”

“He is a wonderful scene partner for a director,” said Moss. “He has fabulous skills, but he brings a great sense of humor and intellect to this.”

Also in the ensemble playing memorable Arthurian characters are Lauren Weinberg as Guenevere, Brian Krinsky as Lancelot and Jason Heil as Merlyn the magician.

In spite of its track record on Broadway, where it ran for two years and enjoyed nearly 900 performances, and the commercial success of a film adaptation in 1967, the musical isn’t produced that often these days.

“People are afraid of it,” assessed Moss. “They think of it as too big for them to handle.”

North Coast Rep is producing a “small cast version” which has become popular at other theaters that lack expansive stages. Moss regards this as an advantage.

“I’m all about honesty on the stage and humanity,” he said. “This is a wonderful opportunity to focus on the humanity of the show because you can see every detail. There’s nothing hidden, everything is there. The heart of the show is very much on our stage. I think that’s what the audience will fall in love with.”

Love in all its complexity is a chief ingredient in the story of “Camelot,” the score of which includes “I Loved You Once in Silence” and “If Ever I Would Leave You.”

In the story, Arthur and his wife and queen, Guenevere, lead a contented life in Camelot until the French knight Lancelot arrives to join his court. Guenevere falls in love with Lancelot, who Arthur has also come to love like a brother.

“They (Arthur and Guenevere) are smart and they’re compatible,” recounted Moss, “and then something comes along that she was missing and there’s a relationship between these three people that is complicated intellectually and emotionally.”

But love is not the only universal in “Camelot,” and it’s there that Moss accounts for the urgency of the story today.

“Arthur, who didn’t want to be king, saw something else and devised this world of Camelot with a Round Table where people could meet and talk, and he could send his knights out to do good,” Moss said. “Then a personal need comes up and he has to decide if he or anybody else is above the law.

“If that doesn’t speak to an audience today, you’re not reading the newspaper or listening to the news.”

There is a strong nostalgic attachment to this Lerner & Loewe musical that endures, too.

“It was so much a part of the (John F.) Kennedy myth,” said Moss, referencing the romanticism and youth that came to be identified with that all-too-brief presidency in the early 1960s. “It touched a generation.

“These many years later the story talks to us about a man who wanted to bring quality and justice to a world that had none.”

‘Camelot’

When: Previews, May 29-May 31. Opens June 1 and runs through June 23. 7 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Where: North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach

Tickets: $54-$79

Phone: (858) 481-1055

Online: northcoastrep.org

Coddon is a freelance writer.