‘Aida’ shines under the stars

By Joe Brown

Monday, Aug. 18, 2008 | 2 a.m.

The show begins in your car.

As the city drops away behind you, the sky glows amber and pink and blue, silhouetting the dramatic shapes of the Red Rock formations. As the full moon climbs the night sky, you follow a winding trail into a dusk-shadowed valley.

This midsummer night’s dream is easily attainable — it’s the prologue to Super Summer Theatre’s season-ending production of the Elton John-Tim Rice musical “Aida” at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park. And it would easily qualify as one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had in Las Vegas, even if I hadn’t been able to sit outdoors for what seems like the first time in forever, bare feet in cool grass, a soft breeze that isn’t air-conditioning soothing my skin.

A middling hit on Broadway, “Aida” proves surprisingly great outdoors, and it boasts some of the best singing you’re likely to find in the valley, indoors or out.

You can’t have fabulous without a good fable, and “Aida” is fortunate in that regard. Based on Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, which itself is based on “Romeo and Juliet,” it’s a love pyramid between a Nubian princess, the Egyptian warrior who captured and enslaved her, and the Egyptian princess who loves him.

After it opened in 2000, “Aida” ran for nearly four years on Broadway, earning five Tony Awards, including best original musical score, and it was produced by Disney, so parents can rest assured that the palace intrigues, poisonings and bedroom comedy will sail easily over the heads of most children.

A hint of political comment brought a chuckle from the audience: The warrior’s father explains the invasion of Babylon to the Egyptian princess. “But our Egyptian armies just stormed in and assumed power?” she asks. “How oppressive of us.” It’s all easily understandable, even if you’re seated far back from the stage.

Even before she sings, Tai Lewis’ Aida is unmistakably royalty, every statuesque inch the Nubian princess in exile. When she reveals that powerful and dusky alto, it results in several of those hair-raising moments you hope for from a musical.

As her Egyptian counterpart, Princess Amneris, Nicole Riding is an appealing mix of Mary Louise Parker and Madeleine Kahn, playing her insecure and preeningly vain character with sympathy and wit — you could hear people laughing all the way back to the snack bar (where water, soda and snacks are available at what-year-is-it low prices).

As the Egyptian warrior Radames (unknowingly outmatched by both of the formidable women in his life), Brandon Albright sings with a clear and expressive tenor, but overindulges in boy-band-ish whines and groans. Albright, who resembles afternoon soap star Antonio Sabato Jr., is costumed as if he stepped off the cover of a paperback romance novel, perpetually bare-chested under floor-length tunics and frock coats — even at his wedding.

Elton John’s pop-pastiche score is performed by a trio of keyboardists/percussionists, and after a somewhat overbearing overture, they ably and unobtrusively support the singers. The most recognizably Elton-ish number is a churning father-son duet-duel called “Like Father, Like Son.”

The amusingly anachronistic production features costumes by director Steve Huntsman that cross science fiction with “The Hills.” Amneris emerges in a fire-engine red vinyl gown and headdress that disco diva Grace Jones would covet, and outfitted in dreadlocks and a floor-length leather-like black tunic Radames’ villainous father looks like John Travolta’s character in “Battlefield Earth.”

There’s even a brief fashion show fantasia straight out of “Project Runway,” and all the costumes are set in dramatic motion by the occasional zephyr. Cristian Bell’s stylized set goes easy on the Egyptian cliches — it could pass as a subtly themed Las Vegas casino lounge, with curving surfaces in a patina of oxidized copper and quarried marble.

Outdoor theater means dealing with surprises, and the “Aida” cast handled every glitch — a dead mike, a crown blown askew by a breeze — with grace and good humor, while the audience enjoyed their triumphs over the elements.

One grumble: The amplification overcompensates for the natural setting, and the wireless microphones worn by the lead actors and the ensemble seem to be set at the same volume level — when sideline characters murmur or even breathe heavily, they sometimes drown out the leads. And when a breeze kicks up, the P.A. system can sound like a cement mixer.

This effectively stripped-down staging of “Aida” may be missing some of the technical-spectacle aspects of a Strip-scale show, but I’ll gladly trade the dazzle for the heartfelt singing on display here.

“Aida” continues through Aug. 30 at the can’t-beat-it ticket price of $10 or $15. It’s the last production of Super Summer Theatre’s season, which included “Beauty and the Beast” and “1776.” And from the exodus from the city to the drive home, the whole evening was so pleasant that I wish I had checked out what was going on out there at Spring Valley Ranch much sooner.