Bay Street 'Camelot' is a field day for the actors

Many words can be used to describe the smash Broadway hit "Camelot." Intimate is not one of them. When the musical opened in 1960 starring Richard Burton, Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet, the cast numbered more than 40, with lavish, expensive sets and costumes (some wryly labeled the show "Costalot") and a run time of well over three hours.

Not on my watch, proclaimed Scott Schwartz, artistic director of Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. The Bay Street production that opens Thursday and runs through Sept. 5 is decidedly intimate, with just 11 actors recreating the beloved legend of King Arthur. "One of things we’ve come to specialize in over the past few years is taking well-known, larger-scale musicals and stripping them down," says Schwartz, who directs the show. Focusing on the essence of the acting and music reveals new things, he says. "I felt 'Camelot' was really ripe for that."

Bay Street is taking the show a few miles away from its Sag Harbor theater, performing "Camelot" in an open field behind the Bridgehampton Carvel. Schwartz says an outdoor space felt like the safest way to plan a large-scale musical when pandemic restrictions were still a moving target. (The audience will be limited to 200; masks and social distancing are not required.)

But the bucolic setting also works for this show, says Schwartz, as it harkens back to the origins of this legend, when the Anglo Saxons were just coming together to form England. "It was a wild, natural environment," he says, "and the surrounding forest is really an essential part of the show…having nature surround the story of a mythical Camelot seemed kind of perfect."

MAKING THEIR OWN MAGIC

Schwartz is working off an adaptation by David Lee. Britney Coleman, who plays Guenevere, knows the adaptation well, having already performed it three times. Lee’s script, she says, cuts many of the ancillary side stories from the original (and brings the run time down to just over two hours).

"Some of the magic that folks know from the original — Merlin, Nimue, Morgan le Fay — is not part of our show," says Coleman, who will return to the Broadway cast of "Company" when it reopens in November. Their songs and scenes have been cut, which Schwartz says puts the remaining actors front and center. "It really allows them to delve into these characters and explore the nuances and complexities of these people and these relationships… the central passionate love triangle between Arthur, Guenevere and Lancelot."

Fans of the original need not despair: Though orchestrations will be modified with a Celtic, Gaelic flair, all the famous songs will be there, promises Schwartz.

A SHOW FOR ALL TIMES

But there’s more to "Camelot" than legendary performances and beloved songs. It is a show for the moment, says Jeremy Kushnier, who plays King Arthur. "The piece is timely, it’s current … this guy and the people around him, the people closest to him, are really just trying to make a beautiful place to live where people are good to each other and take care of each other." And the piece is quite beautiful, adds Kushnier, a Broadway veteran who you might recognize from many television performances (he’s the guy who held a gun to Edie Falco’s head in the series finale of "Nurse Jackie.")

Coleman says the production is a different experience every time she does it, but there’s always a political resonance. It’s the idea of "what does it take to rule a country justly, to sit down and listen to your constituents and be able to relate to people who are not in this room and be accessible."

The trials of the nation over the past 17 months have also been on Schwartz’s mind as he worked on the show. "Camelot," he says, is ultimately "the story of a man who wanted to make a fairer and more equal society … a man who wanted power to make things better." Schwartz sees parallels to American life right now. "Even though this show is a myth set in England centuries ago, it still speaks to us in a contemporary way."