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Will Reynolds

Copperfield! The New Musical

October 31, 2026

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. [more]

The Day Before Spring

February 12, 2019

The York production has been directed and adapted by Marc Acito who has condensed the original two act script into a long one-acter. Realizing that the original setting of 1948 for a tenth year college reunion with no reference to W.W. II or returning veterans does not make a lot of sense, he has moved the romantic comedy plot up to 1959 with some new appropriate references to the fifties (Davy Crockett caps, McCarthyism). Although the story seems to flow well enough the new problem is that with the deletion of some of the plot and dialogue, the characters seem to have been reduced to one-dimensional stereotypes which gives the actors a great deal more to do in order to make them real. [more]