Lerner & Lowe’s “Camelot” is a theatrical event. Southwest Florida Theatre Company’s production of the classic musical has it all – pithy themes, breathtaking performances, stunning set, earthy costumes. But when you’re talking “Camelot,” the music is center stage.
Branch Fields plays King Arthur. He says the music is generational.
“I’ve done several of these musicals from this era, and what I witness every time is people so nostalgic to see the show that they grew up with, and have learned all the words to every song when they were children, and their parents played the album in the household,” said Fields. “Hopefully they’ll bring their grandkids and teach them a new show, too, and these songs are so great.”
Elizabeth D’Aiuto plays Guinevere. While she, too, is enamored of the music, she says there’s more to “Camelot” than just memorable songs.
“The music speaks for itself,” D’Aiuto said. “It’s beautiful. But I think the overarching themes of justice, love, chivalry, and flaws in the characters and their relationships, I think there’s something for everyone coming to see the show. People will leave the show with their hearts pretty full.”
Jeremy Webb directs. He says that the vocalists, the orchestra and the acoustics in the Music & Arts Community Center do justice to the Lerner & Lowe score.
“It’s just one of the greatest scores ever written by Lerner and Lowe,” Webb said. “Every single song is a story song. Every song in the show moves the story forward and is perfect. It has ‘If Ever I Would Leave You’ and, of course, ‘Camelot.’”
Camelot is onstage through February 8.
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“’Camelot’ is about the man who changed civilization by deciding to pull us out of barbarism and into a world where there was justice and the court,” Director Jeremy Webb observed. “In his world, disputes were no longer being settled by the sword, they were being settled by a judge and a jury. It’s a play about the trials and tribulations of the man who created that system.”
In the struggle to create a more civilized society, Arthur, Guinevere and Sir Lancelot bump up against their own vulnerabilities and frailties. “But all three of them do so in service to a higher ideal,” Webb clarified. “That’s what I find unique about this musical. The material is not villainizing any one of them. They’re all flawed. They’re all vulnerable. And they’re all trying to do the best that they can, and there’s tremendous love between all three characters.”
Webb thinks the story is timelier than ever.
“This story about leadership, and what it means to be a leader, and what flawed but judicious and judicial leadership that has to do with justice means, even in this time in 2025, a leader who believed in the law and civilization, I feel like it’s a really timely story for now.”
In Webb’s opinion, Southwest Florida Theatre Company’s production is “super unique.”
“Usually, it’s a cast of 30,” noted Webb. “We’re doing it with a cast of eight. So everyone has a ton to do. In addition, the setting that I’m doing has a festival feel, a Shakespearean feel as opposed to the pageantry and the ballet you usually see. I started right off the bat with the costume designer saying I don’t want to see eight guys in tights and little ballet slippers. I wanted to do an earthier, more robust and physically grounded production.”
Webb admitted to having mixed feelings when he heard that the show would be performed in a church, but he’s been pleasantly surprised with the acoustics of the Music & Arts Community Center.
“The space is acoustically incredible, acoustically immaculate,” Webb said.
The eight actors onstage are supported by seven orchestra members in the pit “and a really pared down but specific and focused orchestration,” Webb noted. “It’s been re-orchestrated for this small cast version of ‘Camelot,’ and it’s very interestingly instrumented. The violin is prominent in the orchestration, and it has a huge percussion section.”
Described by Opera America as “a bass of resonant richness,” Branch Fields is a versatile performer engaged throughout North America and beyond in opera, musical theater, and concert. He has sung with Santa Fe Opera, New York City Opera, Ogunquit Playhouse, St. Pete Opera, Sarasota Opera, Utah Festival Opera, and many others throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Fields' Broadway debut was in “South Pacific,” as ensemble and standby for Emile de Becque in the 2008 Lincoln Center Theater production. Recent performances include Robert in “Bridges of Madison County” for The Ghostlight Theater in Michigan and Leporello in “Don Giovanni” for Indianapolis Opera and Greensboro Opera.
His recent album, “Be Thou My Vision,” can be heard on all major streaming platforms.
Fields has appeared in “Camelot” before, but as Lancelot rather than Arthur.
“For Arthur, the theme is hope and ideals,” said Fields. “But that’s sort of dashed by reality – the reality of human interaction and human conflict.”
That human interaction and conflict emanate from each character’s flaws.
“Before the play even begins, we find Arthur has an illegitimate son, Mordred, who comes to the castle to confront the father that he’s just found out about. That kind of dashes the hope and ideals and chivalry and all the standards that King Arthur has set and lives by, and Lancelot as well.”
Elizabeth D’Aiuto is thrilled to be back onstage with Southwest Florida Theatre Company after appearing in “Forbidden Broadway!” She has appeared on many Southwest Florida stages including The Broadway Palm, Players Circle Theater, and The Naples Players. Most recently, Elizabeth returned from the Global Tour of Jack O’Brien’s “The Sound of Music.” She is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory.
While her character, Guinevere, is equally flawed, she is also highly idealistic.
“Queen Guinevere comes into the show as an arranged marriage for King Arthur and because of his humility and dignity and what he tells me about how he became the king, I want to stay with him and be his queen and fulfill my duty,” D’Aiuto noted. “But Guinevere falls in love with one of the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Lancelot, who also becomes Arthur’s best friend and we have to deal with all that together. And so, yes, she is very flawed and has to deal with the conflict of being in love with two different people.”
D’Auito postulated that Guinevere’s love for the two men is fundamentally different.
“With Arthur, it’s a friendship sort of love, and then when she meets Sir Lancelot, she thinks he’s completely arrogant, full of himself and all of those sort of things, and it’s not until he performs that miracle of bringing someone back to life is the moment she falls in love with him, both emotionally and physically. So it’s a real struggle for her.”
Scott O'Brien plays Lancelot. The role marks his debut with Gulf Coast. He is a classically trained baritone from Las Vegas. Traveling the seas with his one-man show (“An Enchanted Evening”), O'Brien honed his craft among the waves. Previous roles include Jim in “Holiday Inn,” Cornelius in “Hello Dolly” and Judas in “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.