Seconds after the lights come up onstage and the band begins to play, it is evident the musical “Violet” requires standout voices to tackle the show’s challenging music.

Thankfully, the young women in the cast meet that challenge, helping to tell a storyline that was almost unconvincing.

Syracuse University Drama’s production, “Violet,” runs from now until April 28.

“Violet” follows a young Caucasian woman’s journey to Tulsa, Okla., in 1964 in search of a preacher who can heal her scarred face. Fifteen years prior to the journey, young Violet was injured when her father was chopping wood and the axe blade flew off of its handle, deeply slicing her face.

She has since been scarred for life, both physically and emotionally.

While riding a Greyhound bus from her hometown of Spruce Pine, N.C., to Tulsa, 20-year-old Violet befriends two young army men: Monty and Flick. So begins a racially diverse love triangle set during the heart of the civil rights movement.

Eventually, Violet embraces her inner beauty, despite her imperfect skin, and falls in love with Flick. Seeing past his dark complexion, she realizes true love is more than skin-deep.

Tony-nominated composer Jeanine Tesori wrote the music for “Violet,” a musical with a script based on Doris Betts’ short story, “The Ugliest Pilgrim.” While Tesori is best known for composing the music for “Shrek: The Musical,” “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Caroline, or Change,” the music in “Violet” doesn’t compare to her other work. It makes sense why it opened off-Broadway in 1997 and failed to take off into mainstream.

The production starts strong with young Violet, played flawlessly by drama department sophomore Lila Coogan, belting out the lyrics to the energetic opening number.

It then turns into a company-backed duet with the older Violet, played by junior musical theater major Carly Blane, as she boards the Greyhound bus to begin her journey.

Violet’s bus ride to Tulsa is seamlessly intertwined with flashbacks of conversations she and her father had when she was a young girl, deepening Violet’s character and giving purpose to her journey to be healed.

Coogan and Blane similarly portray Violet as naive, stubborn and curious yet determined, helping to close the gap between the ages of the two Violets.

The older one’s voice is more mature than the younger’s, but both are beautifully powerful. The two actresses deliver convincing, dynamic performances, so there is never any doubt they are the same character.

Violet’s father, however, is written as one-dimensional. Actor and junior musical theater major Jordan Weagraff is unfortunately given a role that has little backstory to work with, other than accidentally giving Violet her facial scar. He constantly gives Violet tough love and is almost always shouting, causing Violet to question his love for her.

The standout male for the show is regrettably neither of the two actors in the love triangle with Violet, but is instead delivered by the evangelical preacher who Violet seeks to treat her scars.

Christian Palmer, a junior musical theater major, belts out his handful of solo numbers while introducing an animated television personality during the filming of his televised sermon that counters perfectly with the preacher’s off-camera rudeness.

The music for the show is engaging, but does not include a memorably hummable tune. With 28 songs — including reprises — noted in the playbill, the music for “Violet” is powerful, but not always necessary. The two-and-a-half-hour musical could easily be shortened by cutting down some of the filler songs that don’t move the plot forward.

Directed by Rodney Hudson, “Violet” is fluid and transitions smoothly during scene changes, a tough task to accomplish because of the numerous flashbacks interrupting the stage direction.

Hudson’s direction is also enhanced by the extraordinary set, designed by award-winning scenic designer Felix Cochren Jr. The central set piece begins as the inside of a bus, but it spreads out into the inside of a church sanctuary, in which the aisle of the bus becomes the aisle to the pulpit.

Although “Violet” is a student production, it contains an obviously talented cast. Many of the actors could have arguably performed when the musical was in its off-Broadway debut — even if the script itself might not be perfectly ready for production.

Published on April 22, 2013 at 12:36 am

Contact Kristin: klross01@syr.edu | @kriskross22