‘Saint Heaven’ lifts audience to a better, more musical place

Published 5:18 pm Wednesday, November 5, 2008

EVERETT — The music in “Saint Heaven” is, well, pure heaven.

The ballads make us sway in our seats like the wind wafting through a field of bluegrass. The gospel drives our hands to clapping and the rhythmic numbers force our feet to tapping.

“Saint Heaven” is a new American musical presented through Nov. 23 by Village Theatre at Everett Performing Arts Center.

The story is set in the small town of Saint Heaven in Kentucky in 1957, a time and place where people harbored doubts about doctors, and instead put their faith in a higher being.

The centerpiece of “Saint Heaven” is the Baptist church where people came for spirit-lifting, salvation and to sing. The gospel songs are filled with hope and flow like wine. One church member, Eshie Willington, is particularly filled with spirit because she speaks in tongues. This is God’s gift to Eshie, but what about the plaguing pain that accompanies this gift?

Enter doctor Thomas Rivers, who has begrudgingly returned to his hometown for his father’s funeral and is confronted by the past, the friends he abandoned, the promises he broke. He meets Eshie. He wants to help her relieve the seizures with medicine but Eshie is torn: If she takes it, will she still have the gift?

The conflict between these two is fueled by race — Eshie is black and Thom is white — and by Pastor Joe Bertram whose congregation flocks in to see Eshie witness. Other devilish developments Thom must face include the unrequited love between he and Maggie, the woman he left behind, and the betrayal Thom’s friend Garrison (played solidly by Mark Carr) feels because Thom is never around when he needs him.

These elements are key to the story of “Saint Heaven,” but there is nothing more center stage than the music, which doesn’t fuel the story so much as propel it forward. The score is bountiful, with librettist Martin Casella and composer and lyricist Keith Gordon delivering us a jukebox-like selection of hits to enjoy.

There are several songs, though, that each character comes to own.

Tanesha Ross, who plays Eshie, has a voice of penetrating beauty which shines in the song “The Gift.” But Ross also brings a boundless passion to her Eshie, that passion spilling out in such numbers as “He Had Not Love.”

Pastor Bertram is also played passionately and brilliantly by Kingsley Leggs, who can spread the love from the pulpit like a favorite hometown preacher but who also can spit out biliousness to put the fear of God in us. Leggs is mesmerizing to watch on stage and he belts out “Faith with the Faithful” with a righteous amount of blessed blues.

The wonderful Billie Wildrick, who plays the left-behind Maggie, makes us all fall in love with her with the country ballad “Leave the Rescue to Me.” As the matriarch of “Saint Heaven,” Cynthia Jones’ Millie Walden is as wise-cracking as she is warm. Her singing talents are terrifically displayed in “Not One Thing Tying Me Down.”

Thom Rivers is played by Allan Snyder, who appeared on Broadway in “Les Miserables” and who is making his Village debut. Snyder’s voice is as smooth as Maker’s Mark. Sadly though, the non-singing parts of Snyder’s performance lack spark. Here’s a man who should be spewing some hellish emotions because of the host of demons he must face; instead he comes off cold.

Then again, it’s the music in “Saint Heaven” that heats our soul.

Reporter Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424 or goffredo@heraldnet.com.