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Based on the Italian movie
Passione d'amore, Stephen Sondheim's
Passion is a story of obsessive love. Giorgio (Jere Shea), a soldier, and Clara (Marin Mazzie), a woman with a husband and child, are deeply in love, but their idyllic happiness is disrupted when Giorgio is transferred to another post. Here he meets Signora Fosca (Donna Murphy), a homely and ill woman who is the cousin of the regiment's commanding officer. Fosca soon falls in love with Giorgio and pursues him relentlessly, saying "Loving you is not a choice / It's who I am." He is repulsed and resists her advances, but eventually he succumbs to the power of her love.
Rather than a succession of individual songs strung together by dialogue, Stephen Sondheim's score is a constant flow of gorgeous music. (The original theater program listed no individual songs.) The plot is conveyed by song, some dialogue, letters between the characters, and a group of soldiers that serves as a Greek chorus. The result is more of a chamber opera than a conventional musical. Passion won Tonys for Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Book of 1994.
This video is a stage production filmed for American Playhouse with all of the original Broadway principals, though not before a live audience. To suit television audiences, the producers weakened the opening love scene by removing the nudity of the stage version; instead Mazzie awkwardly tries to keep herself wrapped in sheets as she sings to Giorgio of her bliss. Murphy gives a powerful, Tony-winning performance as Fosca, Mazzie is in glorious voice as Clara, and Shea brings a pretty voice, a pretty face, and a wooden personality to Giorgio. --David Horiuchi
DVD features
The
Passion DVD commentary track offers a rare opportunity to hear composer
Stephen Sondheim discussing his work, joined by writer-director James Lapine, artistic associate Ira Weitzman, and actors Donna Murphy, Marin Mazzie, and Jere Shea. (Sondheim, Lapine, and cast also recorded a commentary for
Sunday in the Park with George.) Things get off to a rousing star with the opening nude scene, as the others pepper Mazzie with questions such as where the microphone was stashed. Their giddiness is a lot of fun (after one five-second waltz they say "We hope you enjoyed the big dance number!" and Murphy recalls that her husband asked, "Do I have to have
breakfast with Fosca? Wash your hair, for Chrissakes!"). But there are serious moments too.
Passion is a powerful, challenging work that tends to polarize audiences, and the group discusses how they felt about some of the reactions they received. Note that the commentary should put to rest the old rumor that they filmed an alternate version of the opening scene that revealed more nudity.
--David Horiuchi
