Zhivago is a bit more challenging. Trying to turn such a sweeping drama into a successful musical is a daunting task. The story is set in Russia during the run-up and aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution, and tells the tale of doctor and closet poet Yurii Zhivago. His engagement party to Tonya Gromeko is interrupted by the shooting of Viktor Komarovsky, an older and wealthy man whom Zhivago blames for the death of his father. Zhivago cares little about Viktor’s health, but is immediately intrigued by the would-be assassin – a young and striking woman named Lara.

What follows is a flurry of activity as both World War I and the communist revolution collide. Lara’s new husband is radical student organizer Pasha Antipova who disappears during the war to reappear later as a leader in the new regime. Meanwhile, Zhivago is drafted as an army medic and Lara meets him again when she volunteers as a nurse looking for her lost husband, but finding Zhivago instead.

All of that is a lot of background to get into the story, and it can make the first several scenes feel a bit frenetic and a challenge to develop the characters, getting the audience emotionally involved. But after the early scenes, the story settles in and becomes very compelling as the dynamics among Zhivago, Lara, Tonya, Pasha, Viktor Komarovsky, and the political turmoil they find themselves in drives the story.

The cast includes San Diego State alum Ivan Hernandez in the title role. He has the look and outstanding vocals to make it work, though an occasional tendency for a melodramatic delivery of an important line. His strongest scenes are near the end when he seems fully and realistically into the character. The tall, picturesque Jessica Burrows stars as Lara, giving the character beauty, vulnerability, and sadness, and giving the story its center. Her solo When the Music Played and her duet with Ivan On the Edge of Time are a couple of the show’s greatest moments. As is the tense, awkward, but warm meeting between Lara and Zhivago’s wife Tonya (a nicely underplayed and genuine performance by Rena Strober) in It Comes as No Surprise.

Tom Hewitt returns to the Playhouse as Lara’s former lover, creating a pragmatic Viktor whom you can tell is truly in love with Lara despite the unpragmatic nature of that love. Matt Bogart as the passionate Pasha is the only one who is both in love with Lara and married to her, but his love and fixation against the wealthy leads him away from his marriage and onto an obsessive path of violence and revenge.

The show boasts an impressive ensemble that includes the talented San Diegan Bibi Valderrama as Zhivago and Tonya’s young, sweet son Sasha, and another young local, Mackenzie Holmes, contributes greatly to a memorable scene at the end as Katarina. Edward Conery and Maureen Silliman are Tonya’s parents who struggle after the revolution. Mark Emerson (UCSD) and Tina Stafford humorously welcome Zhivago back from the war to his now communist-run house. And the whole ensemble gets the show into a new and welcome gear with a  lively, cheerful wedding shower among Pasha, Lara, and their student friends with the scene It’s a Godsend.

Performs through July 9, 2006.

Rob Hopper
San Diego Playbill

Bloodied Soldier/Ensemble: