Laurel Anderson (Mrs. Prozorov, Dasha, others), Joel Liestman (Dmitri), and Andrea Leap (Anna). Photo by Daniel Pinkerton.

“Translation,” Umberto Eco wrote, “is the art of failure.” The subtleties of translation may make seemingly small differences large and cause one thing to be mistaken for another.

High culture? Translation and marketing largely trade on what you want to be read into things. A 2001 play setting the story went by the moniker The Yalta Game, making it sound like a Cold War thriller, and a 2010 operatic adaptation went with the title The Lady with the Pet Dog, which makes the dog sound like something of a costar. Each of these titles shows different aspects of the original Russian and the story, with The Lady with a Lap Dog being a poetic compromise.

Title aside, the musical The Lady with a Lap Dog throws compromise out the window by turning the story into an 80-minute musical. Lap Dog‘s writing team is composed of a pair of Minneapolites: the book and lyrics were written by Daniel Pinkerton (Beaverdance!, Grand Theft Autobiography, Hard Times) and the score composed by Robert Elhai (C, Twisted Apples, Persephone’s Sister). Those who fondly recall Elhai’s use of an accordion in Twisted Apples will be pleased to know that the score is arranged for piano, cello, and accordion.

The basic elements of Lap Dog‘s story should be familiar to anyone who’s read any 19th-century Russian literature: there’s an unhappy marriage, a secret adulterous affair, and not all of the neat finishing elements you might expect in a contemporaneous American piece. The intense longing that suffuses the narrative quickly made it one of Chekov’s most popular short stories. This poignant narrative also inspired an adapted retelling by Joyce Carol Oates – confusingly titled The Lady with the Pet Dog (1972) – that moves the action to the United States and retells it from the female protagonist’s point of view.

Fortune’s Fool bills their musical with the provocative question “What does it mean to be virtuous?” The Lady with a Lap Dog, they promise, will explore “balancing desire and responsibility, the transformative power of unselfish love, and what happens when you fall in love for the first time long after you were spoken for by another.”

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The Lady with a Lap Dog premieres at Open Eye Figure Theatre on Friday, September 15 at 8 pm and plays through September 24.

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Basil Considine

Basil Considine was the Editor of the Twin Cities Arts Reader from 2018-2022. He served as Performing Arts Editor and Senior Classical Music and Drama Critic for the Arts Reader's first five years, before succeeding Hanne Appelbaum. He was previously the Resident Classical Music and Drama Critic at the Twin Cities Daily Planet and remains an occasional contributing writer for The Boston Musical Intelligencer and The Chattanoogan. He holds a PhD in Music and Drama from Boston University, an MTS in Sacred Music from the BU School of Theology, and a BA in Music and Theatre from the University of San Diego.

Basil was named one of Musical America's 30 Professionals of the Year in 2017. He was previously the Regional Governor for the National Opera Association's North Central Region and the 2021-2022 U.S. Fulbright Faculty Scholar to Madagascar.

Latest posts by Basil Considine (see all)

• REVIEW: Moving, Funny, Striking English (Guthrie Theater) - July 22, 2024
• REVIEW: The Time for Newsies is Now (Artistry) - July 21, 2024
• PREVIEW: Behind the Story – Before Out of the Box Opera’s Suor Angelica - June 24, 2024