This weekend's world premiere of the much-hyped The Two Orphans, a musical by Theresa Rebeck (M.A. '83, M.F.A '86, Ph.D '89), left a lot to be desired. Rebeck, an award-winning writer for the stage, television and radio, combined her talents with the music and orchestrations of Kim D. Sherman (a many-time composer of musical scores), as well as the lyrical efforts of John Sheeny (M.F.A. '89) and the direction of Dennis Garhum (the artistic director of the Theatre Calgary), but despite their myriad talents, the show, performed on the Spingold Theatre Center Mainstage, could not be lifted from mere mediocrity.Set during the beginning of Reconstruction, The Two Orphans follows the story of two orphaned former slaves, Henriette (Lindsey McWhorter [GRAD]) and Louise (Nicole Brathwaite). Sisters by adoption, they travel to destitute New Orleans in search of a relative, only to be swept up in the world of racism, corruption and depravity that resides there. As the musical progresses, it examines several aspects of the post-Civil War South, such as the horrors of war, the devolution of the Southern aristocracy and the layers of prejudice that emerged.

In a way, this diversity is the musical's first failing. All the characters seem to flaunt their own pathos, all stuffed into one musical that can barely contain it. Two ex-slaves with semi-Zionistic aspirations for their new life, a carpetbagging former plantation owner who wants to reconstruct the South (Luis Negro), an ambitious white commoner trying to move up in the world (Robert Serrell [GRAD]) and a harrowed Southern gentleman (Aaron Costa Ganis '06) all try to coexist within a two-hour-long musical. While they manage to give a very complete depiction of Southern life, the many plot lines and problems each character faces prevent the audience from focusing on any one person. Audience members are forced to change from one narrative to the next every few minutes, making the show more akin to a convoluted Shakespearean tragedy than a musical.

In the same tragic vein, the show was very melodramatic. Two Orphans is rife with rape, abuse and death (complete with an equally Shakespearean high body count ending). These elements contribute well to the atmosphere of New Orleans, and certainly do an excellent job of setting a grim mood, but this is in turn ruined by the occasional stab at humor. The audience was forced to giggle at very awkward times (such as a brother beating his crippled sibling with his own crutch so he could rape someone). It was clear the musical was not intended to be in any way uplifting, but the comic moments did not so much lighten the mood as disrupt the already-slow pace of the show.

On the brighter side, the show was visually impressive. Period costumes were excellent, right down to the patches on workmen's trousers, the laces on prostitutes' corsets and the contrasting styles of the Southern elite and the Southern middle class. The mobile sets were quite good at depicting the warrens and quarters of the sinful city, and the ambient red lights and fog gave the stage an air of mystery and deceit. The orchestra, set in the back of the stage, was incorporated right into the set with its own costumes and risers that matched the scenery.

Often, a musical with a lackluster plot may be saved by the grace of its songs and music. The Two Orphans was touch-and-go in this department, with both absolute gems and complete turkeys for songs. The show was ambitiously written with a variety of musical styles: Negro spirituals, blues, jazz, swing and Southern hymns. Sadly, only a few actors had the correct voices for the often-difficult accents that had to accompany the type of music they were trying to sing. Gwen Tulin '06, for example, nailed the husky, wailing voice needed for "Lost & Found Blues," while Robert Serrell had a difficult time hitting "Screaming Blues" later on, as his feigned Southern accent didn't quite fit. Individual members of the ensemble couldn't always get the Southern feel into their lines, and solos like "Down in the Quarter" and "The Ballad of Meghan Malone" fell flat, but the cast worked very well as a whole. Songs such as "The Worst Thing" and "The New Orleans Song," both of which incorporated most of the cast and a full accompaniment by the orchestra, were genuinely catchy and improved the mood of the musical greatly.

Ultimately, I would have expected more from a show with such amazing production credentials and well-trained actors (most of whom were graduate students and two of whom were professionals from the Actor's Equity Association). The combination of plot holes, multiple story lines and uneven pacing meant that only Pierre (Eli Schneider '06), a sympathetic thief, and Louise developed any real chemistry (they had the best duet in the show, "Little Boats"), while the rest of the relationships struggled to seem realistic. In the last half hour, the coincidences and dramatic irony (slaves reuniting in horrible ways with their long-lost parents, resulting in murder/suicide, for example) became somewhat corny, and dragged out the ending. Two Orphans has the potential to be better cast, which would improve the music considerably and potentially add more realistic Southern character, but it would still suffer from poorly written lines and a convoluted plot, failings from which I'm not sure any show could recover.