‘Candide’ muses brilliantly on best (and worst) of all possible worlds

We live in “the best of all possible worlds.” That is the mantra expounded by Dr. Pangloss, the irrepressibly optimistic philosopher at the center of “Candide” — the Leonard Bernstein musical inspired by the work of Voltaire, the 18th century French Enlightenment philosopher whose razor-sharp wit and biting irony feel freshly minted.

To be sure, to those entering Evanston’s Cahn Auditorium on Saturday evening just hours after the latest terrorist attacks in London hit the headlines, Pangloss’ pronouncement sounded more ludicrous than ever. But that is just as it should be. For as “Candide” unspools in an extraordinarily fine Music Theater Works production, this brainy musical — with its ravishing score that is the work of a bevy of musical and verbal geniuses — Pangloss, along with his favorite student, Candide, and most of their fellow travelers, are subjected to all the worst that their fellow man can dish out.

That includes war, torture, exile, theft, pestilence and personal betrayal. And cataclysmic natural disasters will be visited upon them, too, prompting these eternal questions: If God is all-knowing and omnipotent, why is there so much cruelty, pain and injustice in the world? And is the existence of evil necessary to create our sense of goodness?

This production arrives ahead of the planned worldwide celebration of the 100th anniversary of Bernstein’s birth in 2018, and it would be difficult to imagine a finer warmup. A notoriously difficult show (the original 1956 edition lasted just two months on Broadway), “Candide” makes immense vocal demands on its actors. But the trickiest aspect of the show is finding the perfect tone: a balance of farce, satire and bitter truth culminating in a soaring moment of reconciliation that leaves you with some shred of hope for the future of humanity. Director Rudy Hogenmiller (in collaboration with choreographer Clayton Cross) has worked something of a miracle in that regard, beginning with the use of the show’s irresistible overture to suggest a play-within-a-play “wink of understanding” as the vast cast gradually gathers and gets into costume and character.

“Candide” follows the adventures of the title character, the guileless bastard son of Westphalian royalty whose coupling with the aristocratic material girl Cunegonde gets him tossed out of the kingdom and subjected to a catastrophic series of events that play out in the Old World of Europe during the first act, and in the New World of Latin America in the second. Along the way, Candide has no choice but to question the accuracy of Pangloss’ notion about “the best of all possible worlds,” as Bernstein’s glorious score channels both Mozart and a touch of Gilbert and Sullivan, with ferociously smart, rapid-fire lyrics by Richard Wilbur, Stephen Sondheim, John Latouche, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker and Bernstein. (The show’s book is John Caird’s reworking of an original adaptation by Hugh Wheeler.)

The sweet-voiced Ben Barker, pale and thin, gives us a most winning blank slate of a young fellow who demonstrates a remarkable gift for survival and adaptation in his quest for true love, friendship and human decency. He loses his innocence along the way, but not his essential optimism. The spoiled and beautiful Cunegonde (Cecilia Iole, so dazzling as Johanna in Paramount Theatre’s “Sweeney Todd” earlier this season) uses her soaring soprano and comic gifts for a show-stopping rendering of the demonic aria “Glitter and Be Gay,” and survives by being trafficked among a slew of wealthy powerful men. (The show’s feminist message is well ahead of its time.) And then there is the old woman who nurses Candide along the way, and has only one buttock to show for a lifetime of monumental efforts at survival. She is played with immense panache by Emily Barnash (winner of two regional Metropolitan Opera competitions), who brings down the house with “I Am Easily Assimilated.”

Gary Alexander does an expert job in the dual role of the narrator (Voltaire) and Dr. Pangloss. Raymond Goodall is full of spirit as Cacambo, Candide’s only truly loyal friend. Billy Dawson is Cunegonde’s perfectly ruthless, narcissistic brother, Maximilian. Abby Murray Vachon is a zesty Paquette, the maid who infects Pangloss with lust (and germs). And Russell Alan Rowe is a hoot as Martin, the man who wins the “most miserable” competition.

The individual voices here are superb, and when the cast of 26 join forces — riding high on the formidable 24-piece orchestra led by Roger L. Bingaman — their clarion sound and the beautiful finale, “Make Our Garden Grow,” are enough to reinforce your belief in mankind, if only for the moment.

This is an elaborate production on every level, with a handsome wooden set by Adam Veness (lit by Adam H. Meyers), ideally playful period costumes by Alexa Weinsierl and sound design by Aaron Quick that makes every whip-smart lyric audible. Sadly, the show has a very short run. Catch it while you can.