The story is a simple one, and you may already know it — the play premiered in 1988, became a film, and was revived on Broadway in 2007. (Lucas revised the script slightly for that revival; the changes, which the Huntington incorporates, update some minor details and thereby leave the essential fairy-tale timelessness intact.) Peter and Rita meet, fall in love, and quickly decide to marry. On their wedding day, an old man kisses the bride — and somehow their souls change places. Talk about “for better, for worse.’’
Complications ensue, of course — no play without complications — but it’s the simplicity of this central moment that gives the play its fabulistic quality. And DuBois, with help particularly from sound designer David Remedios, imbues the kiss with the magic it needs to have if we’re to accept the transformation that follows.
But of course Remedios’s thunderbolt and eerie music, no matter how effective, wouldn’t be enough to persuade us without strong performances from the two actors who must suddenly switch souls, if not roles: Cassie Beck, as Rita, and MacIntyre Dixon, as the Old Man. Dixon reels and flutters as Rita’s soul enters the old man’s body; Beck looks stunned, then disbelieving and furtively thrilled.
Neither one overtly starts copying the other, but both manage to convey the essence of the character that’s been created, while still remaining rooted in the physical reality of their very different bodies. It’s a tricky balance to pull off, and Dixon and Beck accomplish it with expert vocal shadings, subtle shifts of posture and gesture, and a clear empathy for the characters they mean to evoke.
A different kind of difficulty confronts Brian Sgambati, who as Peter must show us his love for Rita, his bewilderment when she turns suddenly strange to him, and his devotion to the person he knows she still is — wherever she is. Sgambati’s tenderness and finesse make all of this believable. Beyond that, the rapport among all three actors, their collaboration in bringing alive the humor that Lucas has woven into the characters’ awkward situation, lets the whole story sing.
