Michael John LaChiusa and Graciela Daniele have worked together for so long and so successfully — she directed-choreographed his Hello Again in 1994, then went on to Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Marie Christine, and Bernarda Alba — that it stands to reason they’ve gotten to know each other well.
Truth is, there’s probably little they don’t know, which brings us to The Gardens of Anuncia, their newest collaboration, and a highly recommended one at that. At some time in the past they were filling each other in on their backgrounds when Daniele recounted her 1940s-50s Argentina childhood during the first Juan Péron regime (with Evita prominent, natch). Daniele described how she was raised during those treacherous years — years when she discovered dance and devoted herself to it — raised by three determined women, her Mami, her Granmama, and her aunt Tia.
Listening to this, LaChiusa — who’s always had a keen sense of malleable material — told his pal that a musical was embedded there. She demurred, but when he went ahead anyway and wrote an opening number and played it for her, she changed her mind. LaChiusa’s work has that way about it.
For which audiences are now the beneficiaries. They’re the recipients of a charming, touching, definitely biographical chamber musical with which LaChiusa and Daniele have played around, going so far as to infuse a delightful bit of magic surrealism. The story told has Older Anuncia (Priscilla Lopez), a celebrated theater creator recalling her upbringing while looking around her garden for the proper place to bury Tia’s ashes. (Mark Wendland designed the tasty set.) While searching, she tells the audience she’s due in the city to accept a lifetime achievement award. (Daniele has a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.)
Insisting she’d rather remain among the peonies and anemones with her memories — this is a memory musical — she looks back at Granmama (Mary Testa), Mami (Eden Espinoza), Tia (Andréa Burns), and, of course, Younger Anuncia (Kalyn West). While devoted to one another, the three older women are different, but their influences have irrevocably shaped Anuncia, young and older.
The men in Granmama’s and Mami’s lives also emerge — not that any of them (Enrique Acevedo, Tally Sessions sharing six roles) were around much longer after creating unforgettable impressions that tinted and haunted and the women’s outlooks.
In the 90 intermissionless minutes LaChiusa tell Daniele’s only-somewhat-altered-for-stage-purposes story, he hands around 15 songs and a couple of reprises, the 10-musicians band conducted with precision by Deborah Abramson. LaChiusa has always given the impression that when he sits at the piano to compose, the melodies flow instantly and mellifluously. That may not be his song-making reality, but it surely seems that way.
And look at the singers Daniele and LaChiusa have rounded up. Testa might as well be considered a LaChiusa player — she headed the Queen of the Mist cast, was in Marie Christine as well as First Daughter Suite and First Lady Suite. If she’s ever been less than outstanding in whatever ensemble she graces…okay, she never has. The same can be said of forceful singers Burns and Espinosa, who both grab the LaChiusa songs by their silvery throat and let soar. West not only sings at the others’ level but dances beautifully (Daniele co-choreographed with Alex Sanchez).
Then there’s Lopez, who has only increasingly strengthened her command since the career-making A Chorus Line turn and remains an audience favorite. Her Anuncia is elegantly thoughtful. (Toni-Leslie James is the astute costumer.) Acevedo and Sessions get their chances, too, and make the most of them, at one point as two Mustache Brothers who vie for Tia’s attention to no avail but don’t seem to mind that much; they’ve got each other.
The magic surrealism? Sessions takes care of that as — get this! — a deer who wanders into Anuncia’s gardens but doesn’t make the trouble deer are often said to make in gardens where they’re not welcome. In an antler headpiece, he has his unexpected appeal when reporting on his life and how it was affected by a Chuck E. Cheese branch taking over his stomping, chomping grounds.
Less magically surreal are the men about whom the women have widely mixed feelings. As bookwriter building on Daniele’s recollections, LaChiusa represents the men as not too much more than adjuncts to these strong women’s world, as objects best kept at a careful distance. Perhaps bookwriter LaChiusa believes this to be the proper attitude more often than not. So many of his works feature memorable women, Bernarda Alba perhaps the most obvious predecessor to his latest piece.
By closing, The Gardens of Anuncia reveals its primary strength. Created by two friends so taken with each other and with each other’s talents, their result arrives as a labor of love. To be fair, Daniele and LaChiusa might object that their musical in no way required labor, just love.
The Gardens of Anuncia opened November 20, 2023, at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater and runs through December 31. Tickets and information: lct.org
