Author: Joe

The New York Musical Festival is presenting 30 new works this summer.  In today’s blog I am going to discuss three readings.  A reading is simply a performance where the actors use scripts on music stands and the musical accompaniment is a piano with maybe one or two additional instruments.  In each case, the actors are fully engaged in performing a character and a reader fills in any necessary script detail.  As always, the subject matter variety at NYMF is evidenced with these three pieces in development:  conspiracy theories, spiritual gurus and coal miners in early 20th Century West Virginia.

Illuminati Lizards From Outer Space (Reading)

Conspiracy theories have been part of my life for a long time as my parents, despite being iron clad Roman Catholics, believe many of them.  The moon is an alien spacecraft is a more recent one.  They are not alone.  Millions upon millions believe stories that are unprovable and unverifiable; it’s the formula that makes religion tick.  Illuminati Lizards From Outer Space is based on the real (and googleable) theory that alien lizards rule us here on Earth.  Yuri Worontschak and Paul Western-Pittard are the creators of this outrageously silly, highly enjoyable, promising new musical.  A super dumb pageant queen loser (a brilliant Autumn Hurlbert) is tricked into helping the inept lizards conquer the human race.  Guy (a perfect Matt Allen) is the inky, sexually depraved lizard who proudly boasts he has two penises.  The duo between these two called “Spaced Out” is musical comedy gold.  The score is solid and the book still can be improved.  But the show is already fun, if not quite brilliant like Bedbugs!!!  I can easily see this show in a long-running cabaret where drinks are served and the audience can get their conspiracy kicks.  As the opening song promises, “we’re illuminati lizards and we’re comin’ to getcha.”

Healing Retreat: A Life of Joy (Reading)

When I read the title of this new musical, Healing Retreat: A Life of Joy, I presumed that this was not going to be my cup of new-agey tea.  In the opening song “Yoni-Lingham/Light & Love,” my fears were amplified to terror.  I listened to these words:  “You are the coral.  You are the pearl.  You are the seaweed gently dancing.”  Yikes.  Quickly the show turned into a goofy satire of spiritual retreats.  Promising!  The janitor of the retreat still has longings for the high school quarterback who happens to be a follower here now and previously picked on her nerdy husband.  A couple is splitting up but that’s not really explored.  Predictably, there is a gay coming out story.  There are some good songs but either the songs are too difficult to sing or the performers weren’t quite up to the challenge.  I think it’s the former as the vocal ranges required often left some sections off-key and/or pitchy.  “Share it with the Man on the Moon” was nicely sung and our nerd hero/anti-hero Ned (John Shartzer) had a great character song with the R&B flavored “Tonight I’m Barry White.”  The plot devolves into a chaotic mess as the spiritual retreat is threatened by multiple coup d’états.  I was rooting for Chris Eagle, played by Sean Mullaney, who seemed to strike the right tone for his character in this oddball concoction.  In the end, we learn that the secret of loving yourself is forgiveness.  All the ridiculousness for that?

Storming Heaven:  The Musical (Reading)

Near the end of Act I, the company performs the title song “Storming Heaven.”  The performers were ready to move ahead but the audience wanted to keep clapping and the show briefly paused.  That’s a really good sign for a new musical.  The audience is engaged, invested and appreciative.  This musical is based on a novel of historical fiction by Denise Giardina.  The plot centers around the coal miners of West Virginia in the early 20th Century leading up to one of the largest labor uprisings in United State’s history, the Battle for Blair Mountain.  This is a story of oppression by big business and indifferent government against the struggling common man who thinks a Union might be the answer to their struggles.  The score is excellent.  I made notes of the songs I particularly loved but the list is too long for here.  A great sign for a new musical.  The book is quite good, adding a few coloring details might enhance the depth of storytelling for these realistic, believable characters.  As an example, the dialogue leading into “I Can’t Help Remembering”  gets us to the song but we could perhaps hear a detail about the remembrance rather than just be told that it exists.  Nit picking perhaps but this show has the bones for bigger goals.  While I am at it, one more thing concerning the opening number, “Swing A Pick.”  Once you hear Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive” in the melody, it’s hard to unhear it.  Overall, this musical by Katy Blake, Peter Davenport, Tracy Lawrence (eight #1 Billboard country singles) and Flip Anderson is a winner.  One of the minor characters is an Italian woman whose immigrant husband is a miner.  If Storming Heaven’s book is pasta and its music is the sauce, then it’s nearly dinnertime.  The sauce is already delicious and the pasta is just shy of al dente.  A couple of minutes and it’ll be perfect.

www.nymf.org

Continuing my 2018 journey through the new musicals presented at NYMF, I’m struck by the topicality and relevance of the themes being explored.  During the last month, I found myself in the middle of a conversation between privileged white people who were quite annoyed by the confusion of gender identity labels.  I understand how hard it might seem to find pronouns so easily misunderstood these days.  Two musicals ask us to consider this conversation from a different point-of-view.  Perhaps rather than worrying about being criticized for calling someone a “they” instead of a “she” or a “he,” we consider applying some empathy (a sadly vanishing art) towards the individuals struggling through their complicated emotional development.

Interstate (Production)

Melissa Li and Kit Yan have written a solidly constructed musical about a lesbian and a transgendered poet (male identified) who have found success as a musical duo called Queer Malady.  Interstate asks and answers the question, “Can I make a life out of queer poetry?”  Interstate is the road tour journey these two (Jon Viktor Corpuz and Angel Lin) take across the United States.  Along the way, we meet their parents, record company executives, small minded locals and, most importantly, their online fans.  One of whom is Henry, a high school girl just coming to terms with her newly shared trans identity.  Sushma Saha inhabits Henry so completely that the emotional depth of the show is significantly deepened well beyond the semi-formulaic band-on-the-road trials and tribulations.  Her song “I Don’t Look” brings us deeply into her personal challenges.  The score is quite good and “Loser Dumplings” and “Everything Changes” were particularly fine.  Kudos to Andreas Wyder (radio talk show host, priest, drag performer) for outstanding ensemble character work.  Overall, Interstate delivers on its promise to flood the stage with empathy, inspiration and a large dose of heartfelt feelings.

Wonder Boi (Reading)

Another musical about transgendered youth, Wonder Boi adds a superhero element for an interesting juxtaposition between an indestructible self-healing body versus body image issues.  J. Jarrett wrote this musical and there are some effective songs such as “When He Flies” and “White Shoelaces.”  The plot, however, is wildly overwrought with a sister who is sort of a depressed nutty mad scientist.  Think Dr. Jekyll spliced into an afterschool special.  In this show attention is focused on gender defining labels and getting them accurate (the lecturing can admittedly be somewhat annoying).  The dialogue veers from fun to preachy and back again so I was never really invested in any of the characters.  Fun example:  “Am I Wonder Boi?  No I’m Wonder Boi?  That makes sense… you’ve always had a savior complex.”  But there are far more lines like:  “I’ve been homesick for a body I’ve never been in” and “you can’t blame your selfishness on being trans.”  Subtle metaphors stay away:  “Why is my Lemony Snicket book falling apart?  Why aren’t we built with better bindings?”  For me, Wonder Boi never achieved liftoff.

Pedro Pan (Production)

Rebecca Aparico and Stephen Anthony Elkins wrote this musical based on the real events of Operation Pedro Pan.  From 1960 to 1962, more than 14,000 Cuban children arrived in the United States without their parents to escape the growing fears of communist indoctrination.  Given today’s news cycle, Pedro Pan could hardly be more relevant.  What begins as a promising idea with Cuban flavor quickly turns generic.  “We Won’t Stand Out” could be a song in any show.  Peter Pan is Pedro’s favorite book and it is referenced throughout resulting in dialogue like “if only you believe then you can fly.”  One of his new friends is even named Wendy.  Thankfully the three friends have nice chemistry while they try to navigate the by-the-book schoolyard abuse.  One great multi-dimensional performance by Natalie Toro as Pedro’s Tia Lily provided some of the depth this material needed about the struggle of immigrants assimilating into American culture.  Pedro Pan considers our country.  “Isn’t America the land of immigrants?  Yeah, but only the kind they like.”  Both topical and timely, I wish I liked this show more than I did.

www.nymf.org

The New York Musical Festival is celebrating its 15th anniversary this summer.  NYMF “nurtures the creation, production and public presentation of stylistically, thematically and diverse new musicals to ensure the future vitality of musical theater.”  This year’s offerings include 12 full productions (usually five performances each with sets and costumes) and 9 readings (full casts with scripts).  NYMF fact:  four NYMF shows made it as far as Broadway:  [title of show], Next to Normal (NYMF’s Feeling Electric), Chaplin (NYMF’s Behind the Limelight) and In Transit (NYMF’s Along the Way).  Over the next four weeks, I am going to report what this year’s festival has to offer.

Legacy the Musical  (Reading)

Ambitious in its historical scope, Legacy the Musical imagines Martin Luther King Jr. taking Martin Luther through an analysis of his life while both men sit in purgatory.  We see Young Martin Luther in the early 1500s as he ascends from a monk to the most read German theologian of his time, aided by his translation of the Bible from Latin to German at the time of the Gutenberg printing press.  Many major life highlights are covered, not all of which put the founder of the Protestant Reformation in a holy light.  Even addressed is his anti-Semitic treatise On the Jews and Their Lies, later quoted extensively by Third Reich Nazi propaganda.  Legacy currently sits uncomfortably as a musical dramedy.  The story is serious but it tries a bit too hard to replicate the jauntiness of Hamilton, including the use of hip hop.  The emotions from Dear Evan Hansen are also noticeable in November Christine’s score.  Legacy feels like a good school age musical in its current form.  The choice of material suggests a darker edge (less silliness and easy laughs) might make this concept really fascinating and relevant in our era of overt political and religious manipulation.

Bad Ass Beauty:  The Rock Opera  (Production)

Laquinta Prince plays Alpha Female in the musical rock concert Bad Ass Beauty.  With her collaborators, she wrote much of the lyrics and co-wrote the music of this autobiographically inspired journey of her life.  We travel from her childhood to the development of her multiple coping personalities to relationships, career and band formation dynamics.  Two of her alter egos, Bad Ass and Beauty, help present this material in word and song.  Ms. Prince might best be described as a buxom, long haired Oprah Winfrey in a cougar patterned bra.  She is a formidable stage presence.  Why Oprah?  “You never told me that you loved me, you no longer have the title Daddy.”  “No one wants to be alone.”  “I’m so broken, I try not to show it.”  Thankfully, it’s not all super-serious:  “I took to that gig like an 80’s band takes to distortion pedals.”  Bad Ass Beauty presents some interesting ideas and has conviction.  To reach the next level, the various internal personalities (including the Four Horsemen alter egos) need to be more fully developed.  The score decently rocks but is not nearly as memorable as Alpha Female’s vocals.

Brad Knows Nothing (Reading)

The first scene of Brad Knows Nothing takes place in history class where Brad is sleeping through another student’s presentation.  Through song we learn that he wants to be a hero.  First, however, he has to convince his teacher not to fail him.  Brad concocts a storybook journey as Bradimus and, along with his sidekick, Chadmire, they time travel and mash up history.  King Arthur and Guinevere, Helen of Troy and Jesus all participate in this improbable yet rollicking adventure.  Laughs are plentiful and this reading is particularly well-staged by Ryan Emmons.  Jacob Ben-Shmuel (Chadmire) and Alan Blake Bachelor have written some quality character songs, especially I Want (To Be a Knight) for Guinevere and A Few Small Adjustments for King Arthur (Destinee Rea and Robert Lee Toms, both excellent).  As this show continues to develop, the long denouement needs to be tightened as this high energy exercise drags towards its redemptive conclusion with repetitive messaging.  A fine cast and ensemble have nicely showcased a promising, funny musical in development.

www.nymf.org