A superlative cast, inspired direction, and designs that are the epitome of imaginative top the list of reasons not to miss Peter Hall’s musical adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm at A Noise Within.

Orwell’s allegorical take on the rise of communism in early-20th-century Russia (from the events leading up to the 1917 revolution to the oppressive Stalinist regime that began a decade later) reimagines the Russian populace as English farm animals who, grown tired of toiling for a drunken, abusive farmer, seize control of their lives only to see their idealistic hopes dashed when a cadre of megalomaniacal pigs seize power.

Had A Noise Within programmed Animal Farm in the post-Iron Curtain 1990s or even as recently as Barack Obama’s eight years in the White House, Hall’s 1984 stage adaptation might have seemed more Cold War than contemporary.

The 2016 election proved a game changer, however, giving Orwell’s vision of a totalitarian state a “now more than ever” relevance that makes A Noise Within’s season opener a particularly savvy choice.

Julia Rodriguez-Elliott’s once again theatrically innovative direction is aided every step of the way costume designer Angela Balogh Calin, wig-and-makeup designer Tony Valdés, and mask designer Dillon Nelson, who suggest each animal’s species without attempting to hide the fact that these are human actors bringing them all to life.

Particularly impressive are the designs that transform Geoff Elliott, Deborah Strang, and Nicole Javier into Boxer, Clover, and Mollie, equines with spectacularly bouffant manes, pairs of walking sticks standing in for front legs, and outfits that befit their varied roles on the farm, and similar design kudos can be heaped on Cassandra Marie Murphy’s witchlike raven Moses, Bert Emmett’s white fur jacketed and bewigged Sheep, and the oversized snouts that turn multiple cast members into pigs.

Factor in Ken Booth’s vivid, dramatic lighting, Calin’s stark, wood-planked set, Shen Heckel’s cleverly conceived properties, and Nick Santiago’s strikingly projected lists of Animal Farm’s gradually morphing rules and you have a production that looks as fabulous as it sounds, and it sounds pretty darned fabulous thanks to music director Rod Bagheri, sound designer Kate Wecker, and a vocally gifted cast.

Lyricist Adrian Mitchell and composer Richard Peaslee’s songs, reminiscent of both Kurt Weill and Stephen Sondheim (in Assassins mode), feature expert musical accompaniment by Bagheri on piano, David Catalan on woodwinds, and Nathan Johnson on trumpet and flugelhorn.

Cast standouts include Rafael Goldstein, who channels dictators past and present to frighteningly real effect as the power-hungry Napoleon; Elliott and Strang’s Boxer and Clover, equal parts gravitas and wisdom; and Trisha Miller, who makes it abundantly clear how Squealer got her name.

Add to that Emmett, Stanley Andrew Jackson, Javier, Murphy, Jeremy Rabb, Philicia Saunders, and Sedale Threatt Jr.’s equally memorable featured turns and you have yet another superb A Noise Within ensemble who deserve added snaps for meshing oinks, whinnies, bleats, caws, meows, and yelps with spoken dialog.

Kenneth R. Merckx, Jr.’s energetic fight choreography and the cast’s assorted British dialects (coached by Andrea Odinov) deserve mention as well.

Miranda Johnson-Haddad is dramaturg. Marc Leclerc is assistant fight choreographer. Mason Vancil is audio engineer.

Pat Loeb is production stage manager and Mikayla Bettner is assistant stage manager. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

Like Man Of La Mancha and The Three Penny Opera before it, Animal Farm proves yet again that when A Noise Within tackles musical theater, the results are quite stunning indeed. As engaging and entertaining as it is thought-provoking, Animal Farm is guaranteed to blow you away.

A Noise Within, 3352 East Foothill Blvd, Pasadena.
www.ANoiseWithin.org

–Steven Stanley
September 3, 2022
Photos: Craig Schwartz

Tags: A Noise Within, Adrian Mitchell, George Orwell, Los Angeles Theater Review, Peter Hall, Richard Peaslee