Copperfield! The New Musical

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While many of Charles Dickens’ novels have been adapted successfully for the musical theater (Oliver! And The Mystery of Edwin Drood are two that come to mind), David Copperfield which clocks in at 870 pages in the Signet edition has defied successful musical adaptation until now. Jeffrey Scharf’s skillful and clever Copperfield! The New Musical has streamlined the story so well that it works beautifully as a new musical. With director and choreographer Gabriel Barre, Scharf’s musical version solves many of the problems inherent in such an adaptation. As this bildungsroman (story of growing up) deals with David Copperfield’s earliest days to his second marriage at age 35, two actors are used as David, but cleverly they interact reminding us that the child is father to the man. All of the main characters and events are here except for David’s schoolfriend Tommy Traddles who actually isn’t needed in the retelling.

The show is performed story theater style in which each of the characters narrates part of the story which allows the adaptation to include Dickens’ descriptions as well as dialogue. Possibly inspired by the stagings of John Doyle which did it first, each of the actors plays a musical instrument or more so that there is no separate band and the actors interact by being on stage most of the time. Scharf’s score resembles that of British music hall which is exactly right for a 19^th century Dickens tale. The orchestrations by Sonny Paladino usually include two violins, cello, accordion, guitar, percussion and sometimes piano in each song.

Edward Pierce’s setting suggests a theater with an upright piano and ghost light on stage when the musical begins. Adult David’s initial narration suggests we are getting scenes from his life which makes the stage metaphor coherent. Beginning with young David’s birth some months after his father’s death, we follow his difficult childhood: his mother Clara’s remarriage to the harsh and remorseless Mr. Murdstone, his being sent to the brutal and ineffective Mr. Creakle’s Salem House school, one of those terrible establishments  Dickens was so good at depicting, his being taken out of school and sent to a dirty bottle factory in London when he lives with impecunious Mr. Micawber and his wife, and finally his finding contentment when he runs away to live with his great-aunt Miss Betsey Trotwood and her companion Mr. Dick in Dover, where he boards with solicitor Mr. Wickfield and his daughter Agnes in nearby Canterbury to attend school.

At this point, the show switches to the adult David (Bobby Conte) and we follow his first love affair with the childlike Dora, his involvement with the dishonest and deceitful Uriah Heep who cheats Mr. Wickfield and Aunt Betsey, his friends the Peggottys, Little Em’ly and Ham, who live in a boat that is permanently implanted in the ground in Yarmouth, and his friendship with classmate James Steerforth who proves to be both a cad with women and not a very reliable friend. David who becomes a successful novelist has his losses and achievements but he is unbalanced by the last set of deaths of his friends and leaves for the continent. Eventually not finding what he is looking for, he returns to England and ultimately finds happiness with the one person he has taken for granted all these years.

Pierce’s minimal set uses tables and chairs (plus a balcony office) for the many scenes and the actors usually move their own furniture. This allows for a fluidity that doesn’t hold up the 22 scenes used to tell the story. Except for the two Davids, young and adult, all the other actors play multiple roles and the combinations are quite clever. Jen Caprio’s period costume distinguish the actors in their many roles.

Besides their ability on musical instruments, the cast is both versatile and accomplished, including singing well. Bobby Conte is both an excellent narrator and stalwart hero as the adult David. As young David, alternating actors Calvin Knegten and Henry Witcher have been directed to be very enterprising. As David’s mother Clara and childlike bride Dora, Cathryn Wake is sweet as both women though obviously unable to take care of themselves. As both David’s former nurse Peggotty and the put-upon Mrs. Micawber, Amelia Cormack is very resourceful. As eccentric Aunt Betsey Trotwood, Kara Mikula is very wise and idiosyncratic, as is Aaron Michael Ray as the simple Mr. Dick.

Tatiana Wechsler demonstrates her versatility as both the saintly heroine Agnes Wickfield and the stern Jane Murdstone, David’s stepfather’s sister. Will Reynolds almost steals the show as two villains: the tyrannical Mr. Murdstone and the devious Uriah Heep. Jack-of-all-trades Alexander Sovronsky is amazingly good as noble Mr. Peggotty, the psychopathic Mr. Creakle, the businesslike Mr. Quinion who runs the bottle factory in London for Mr. Murdstone, and the weak-willed Mr. Wickfield who is almost out done by his assistant Uriah Heep. Other memorable characters are Jed Feder’s cheerful Ham, Owen Squire Smith’s charming James Steerforth, and Andy Taylor’s eccentric Mr. Micawber. Nancy O’Connor who is also music director appears as the romantic Little Em’ly.

Scharf’s lyrics are strict ballads with clever rhymes. All of the 30 musical numbers are melodic while the show does not as of yet have one standout song. Among the most impressive lyrics are “The House of Daniel Peggotty,” Steerforth’s “Mr. Creakle Is a Tatar,” Uriah Heep’s “Humble Is, Humble Was,” and Steerforth’s “I Am a Rover,” and Mr. Micawber et al’s “The Name of the Villain (Is Heep),” and Dora and David’s love song “Always the Pleasure Was Mine.” David’s song “I Am Home” is used as the show’s theme at both the beginning and the end, suggesting the theme of the story is that David is in search of a home.

Not only is Jeffrey Scharf’s Copperfield! a very skillful adaptation of a huge Dickens novel, it is very satisfying as a story of a man’s trials and tribulations in the 19^th century. Part of the fun is watching the actors come back in multiple roles, sometimes similar to their previous roles and sometimes as the exact opposite. The score is both delightful as well as strictly within its period (1835 – 1870) which so much recent theater music has not been. The score does has its winners that should be better known. It is also a literary adaptation that may well send you back to the book for all the right reasons.

Copperfield! The New Musical (through December 6, 2026)

Act Two Theatricals

The Duke on 42^nd Street, 229 W. 42^nd Street, 2^nd Floor, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit http://www.copperfieldthemusical.com

Running time: two hours and 35 minutes including one intermission