STAGE WEST: "Master Class" from Roustabout and Scripps Ranch theaters

Left to right: Sandy Campbell, Sara Frondoni and Kyle Adam Blair in "Master Class."  Photo by Tim Botsko

            There’s a singular fascination about watching teachers teach, whether it’s in the movies (‘Stand and Deliver” for one), on television (“Abbott Elementary” or dare I cite “Welcome Back, Kotter”?) or on the stage (“School of Rock,” et al). I’ve been reminded of this by seeing for the second time a production of Terrence McNally’s “Master Class,” which depicts the august opera diva Maria Callas teaching/bullying hopeful students at the Juilliard School in the early ‘70s.
            It was 10 whole years ago that I saw Sandy Campbell portray Callas in bygone ion theatre’s production of “Master Class.” The play and Campbell are back, this time in a co-production between Roustabouts Theatre and Scripps Ranch Theatre directed by Phil Johnson.
            Because a decade has passed, I’d mostly forgotten the ion “Master Class” other than remembering that Campbell was superb in the role of arguably opera’s grandest and possibly most temperamental legend. The other night at Scripps Ranch Theatre’s Legler Benbough space on the Alliant International University campus it started to come back to me. The premise: a mix of Callas monologue (often addressing the audience) and interactions with three students – two sopranos and a tenor, with intermingling of biographical musings and memories from “La Divina.”
            Campbell is superb once again. That’s not a surprise. What was a bit of a surprise this time around is that those aforementioned biographical musings and vocalized memories are definitely the heart of “Master Class” and the best reason to see it. I was not as patient this time around with the teaching sequences, even though the three performers (Abigail Grace Allwein, Sara Frondoni and Ben Read) are outstanding singers. (Disclaimer: I’m not an opera aficionado, so maybe I’m not qualified to truly judge.) The first act encounter between Callas and Allwein’s Sophie feels repetitive and drawn out. The much more compelling Act Two, in which Callas meets and hears tenor Anthony (Read’s aria is by far the most affecting in the show) and the fiery Sharon whom Frondoni portrays, also culminates with Campbell’s deepest, most emotional monologue, the worth-the-price-of-admission sequence.
            The vocal performances are accompanied by Kyle Adam Blair who besides playing piano gets a few choice lines here and there. Tim Benson makes cameos as a stagehand exasperated by Callas’ orders and complete indifference to his existence.
            The Benbough stage is kind of an odd, horizontal space, but only Campbell moves around much. What is happily surprising is that the sound (designed by Ted Leib, who also supervised the fascinating Callas biographical projections) is excellent. Even the sopranos’ highest notes ring true and pure in the theater.
            Make no mistake, however. This was and is a tour-de-force for Sandy Campbell whose Maria Callas is wry, funny, infuriating, unkind, wounded, unsympathetic AND sympathetic almost all at once. That’s an onerous task for any actor.
            Besides her performance, I took away from seeing “Master Class” a second time that Maria Callas’ sometimes-glamorous life was almost a tragic one, for the one thing she wanted more than anything else – true love – really escaped her. I also took away the fact that paramour Aristotle Onassis was a gazillionaire bully not worthy of her.
            I’m still not very interested in opera but it’s impossible to see “Master Class” and not be interested in – and beguiled by – the towering enigma that was Maria Callas.
            “Master Class” runs through Dec. 14 at the Legler Benbough Theatre on the campus of Alliant International University in Scripps Ranch.