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The Midtown International Theatre Festival continues this week in full-swing and next week with one final production in the Festival's newly created "commercial division." So far, I've done only a sampling of shows in MITF this year, taking in just about 7 offerings in total, spanning the spectrum of solo work, new musicals and a comedy. It's been a mixed bag. As with all shows in such Festival situations, there's a lot of promise to be found, but only one show seems as if it is truly ready for audiences, and might be even ready for a transfer.

Let me start with some of the promising offerings. On my first day at the Festival, I took in the musical Cleopatra: A Life Unparalleled. Cheryl E. Kemeny has not only written the book, lyrics and music for the show, she also co-directs with Char Fromentin, who has provided the choreography. It may seem foolhardy for Kemeny to take on the triple challenge of writing a musical, but in many instances, she succeeds admirably, particularly in her lyrics which are carefully and often cleverly constructed.

Unfortunately, Kemeny's book and music both leave something to be desired. In "Cleopatra," Kemeny chronicles the legendary Egyptian queen's childhood, and her affairs with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. That's a lot of ground to cover in any one piece – it took both Shakespeare and Shaw a play each to explore just one of Cleopatra's romances. On film, her biography is the subject of several epics. In contrast, Kemeny's "Cleopatra," lasts only 90 minutes, leaving audiences with the sense of having watched a Cliff Notes version – although well-conceived - of this ancient history.

The fleetness of the book is undermined by the hodgepodge of musical styles that Kemeny employs in the score. There's some rock, some traditional Broadway, country-western, etc. It's a grab-bag that makes the extraordinary events seem somehow less epic or regal. We tend to forget this when Melissa Labbadia, playing the title role, is center stage: her gait and presence are truly regal and exotic, but at other times, a sense of the mundane pervades this musical exploration of "a life unparalleled." Perhaps with the assistance of a dramaturg and additional collaborators, this piece with its impressive lyrics and always intriguing story, might find its way.

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