Pearl
Pearl Book and Lyrics by Jill Cradock
Music by Mike Wiest
Directed by Jennifer Bennett
Starring Victoria White, Rebecca Cain
Myrrh Productions
Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival – Brown Venue</strong>
Sometimes morals are just a matter of price. Caroline (Cain) and Cora Pearl (White) have a sisterly love-hate relation, but they team up to share an apartment and work the high end Parisian aristocratic sex trade. Cora’s more successful; she worked her way up to a stable of high end horses and carriages that matched her silk dress collection. Caroline is less successful, she’s left to service lowly Earls and Dukes. Eventually Cora finds her way to Napoleon’s bed, during the days he’s conquering the world, but at night he shifts to his more feminine side and discusses his feelings although the subject of Moscow never comes up. Cora is in the big league now, but she’s no longer in charge of her own destiny no matter how she protests. She’s now involved in geopolitics, and sometimes that will you screwed in the screwing business.
As musicals go, this one has some wonderful songs and arrangements, and both Cora and Caroline have the voices to carry off a show like this. But what this show seems to lack is a central dramatic crisis. Cora never seems upset or worried about here fortunes or looks or the fragility of her position, thus when she loses them the audience reaction is “Oh, too bad. I guess she’ll take care of herself somehow. She always did…” Cora needs a seed of self doubt, that will take this collection of great songs from a history lecture to a full blown Greek tragedy.
This show is part of the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival. Tickets and other information may be found at http:\www.OrlandoFringe.org
