‘Cyrano’ a winnnig ‘hybrid’ at House Theatre of Chicago

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Shawn Pfautsch stars as Cyrano and Stacy Stoltz stars as Roxane in The House Theatre of Chicago production of "Cyrano"

Updated: November 5, 2011 2:00PM

To be sure, The House Theatre of Chicago’s wonderfully offbeat “Cyrano” strays considerably from any straight-laced, traditional Comedie Francaise-style version of Edmond Rostand’s ever-popular 1897 play-in-verse. or is it an entirely modern retelling of “Cyrano de Bergerac” in the style of “Roxanne,” the 1987 film in which Steve Martin’s Cyrano-like character took the form of a fireman in the Pacific Northwest.

Rather, Matt Hawkins, the show’s gifted and original adapter-director-fight choreographer, has devised a most ingenious and engaging hybrid that is at once old and new, classic and knowingly hip, heartfelt and playful. Both an homage and a retuning, this new version remains true in many respects to the tragicomic story of the nobleman-soldier-poet whose inordinate panache could never quite compensate for the lack of self-esteem (and unrequited love) that results from his having an unusually large nose. But is also is fresh and fun.

True, purists will say that it takes a good deal of the poetic air out of Rostand’s souffle at times. (For example, Cyrano would never stoop to using such pedestrian slang as “dick.”) But it also blithely compensates for such gaffes by injecting the story with speed, immediacy, humor, memorable bursts of emotion, some truly spectacular swordplay and a beguiling piano score by composer-music director Kevin O’Donnell that at times allows the actors to be far more eloquent than if they were using words. Highflying language may be a casualty here, but overall it works.

Though dressed in 17th century finery (Jacqueline Firkins’ costumes are an inspired mix of period and now), and spectacularly skilled at dueling, this Cyrano (played by a fleet, droll, melancholic Shawn Pfautsch), is more melancholic, piano bar singer-songwriter than old-fashioned poet. In fact, the show begins with a winning ballad about the very meaning of “panache” that sets the tone for all that is to come.

Of course the crux of the story is that Cyrano is hopelessly in love with the beautiful Roxane (the naturally intense, darkly radiant Stacy Stoltz), who in turn is head-over-heels mad for the younger and far more handsome soldier, Christian (Glenn Stanton is absolutely right in the role). But like Cyrano, her intellectual soulmate and best friend, Roxane loves words and needs to be wooed with eloquence — something Christian cannot do. So, wanting to make Roxane happy, Cyrano becomes Christian’s ghostwriter, and selflessly helps him to please her and win her heart with the very words he wishes he could say to her himself.

Along the way, Mike Smith is winning goofy as Ligniere, the wannabe poet who idolizes Cyrano, and Shane Brady brings genuine depth and poignancy to Le Bret, Cyrano’s loyal and serious friend.

Played out on designer Collette Pollard’s two-story set, with its wraparound balcony and staircase, two moments in particular continue to reverberate. One is when Stoltz hears the news that the man she adores has been killed in battle, and she races downstairs saying nothing but a series of anguished “Nos” that tear at the heart. The other is when, in grief and broken-heartedness, Cyrano and Roxanne sit together at the keyboard and jointly pound out their separate but mutual anguish.