Review: Cyrano de Bergerac Enchants in a Lively Modernization at Pasadena Playhouse

Martin Crimp’s translation of Edmond Rostand’s classic Cyrano de Bergerac plays fast and loose with Rostand’s original text, but the story of a love triangle built on words and beauty remains the same in the new production at Pasadena Playhouse.

Poet and soldier Cyrano (Chukwudi Iwuji) worships his cousin Roxanne (Rosa Salazar), but his enormous nose makes him unattractive to her. Instead, she loves young heartthrob Christian (Will Hochman). Christian, however, lacks the skill to write Roxanne the love letters she longs for, so Cyrano agrees to compose them for his new friend. Cyrano pours his heart and soul into these letters and they fill Roxanne with passion, which she then bestows upon the handsome yet inarticulate man.

Rostand’s tragicomic tale stresses interior over exterior beauty. Crimp gets this idea across while modernizing Cyrano’s love-making language with contemporary expressions and four-letter words. Crimp also adds other modern touches, incorporating gender fluidity into the story and transforming Roxanne into a forward-thinking feminist who reads Susan Sontag. In a café scene, the character of Madame Ragueneau (Kimberly Scott) comments on her poetry students forcing rhymes, and the text mirrors that observation.

Director Mike Donahue creates some striking scenes, particularly near the end of Act 1 when Cyrano drops a pen and speaks as though he is Christian, whispering his own sweet nothings into Rosalind’s ear. It’s erotic and endearing at the same time.

Unfortunately, in the opening scene, Iwuji speaks too quickly, whipping out jokes about his own massive nose so that few of the puns can be heard. But Donahue allows Iwuji to skillfully simulate the famous facial feature through gestures rather than relying on prosthetics.

Dressed in modern attire, Iwuji plays Cyrano with vitality, but his Cyrano also brims with so much confidence that at times it’s hard to believe that he really thinks himself ugly. Hochman makes clear both his character’s devotion to Roxanne and his frustration that he cannot be a man she desires. Salazar is earthy as the more literate and self-assured Roxanne. Michael Nathanson is a standout as the vainglorious De Guice, who never veers into cartoonish buffoonery even though his character is an affected, entitled weasel. The hilarious Jonathan Slavin feasts on the minimal scenery as a terrible Shakespearean actor.

Like Steve Martin’s Roxanne and the delightful ’90s comedy The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Pasadena Playhouse’s Cyrano de Bergerec takes a story that has bewitched audiences for over a century and reimagines it. Although it calls into question the importance of an original author’s style and intent, this merry production will enchant audiences with its romance and humor.