Category: Off-Broadway Reviews

In 2012, Patti Lupone opened the Broadway nightclub 54 Below with a one week engagement.  She performed her magnificent song “Meadowlark” which is justifiably famous in theatrical circles.   I had never before heard this masterpiece of exquisite, lyrical storytelling from 1976’s The Baker’s Wife, a Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Wicked) musical which toured the country but closed out of town before reaching Broadway.  At the intermission of Renascence I was both ecstatic and overwhelmed that the first act contained – at least – two Meadowlarks in its score, one being “The Bean-Stalk.”  By the end of this gloriously creative world premiere musical, I was speechless in the best possible way.

Edna St. Vincent Millay was the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1923.  In this loosely dreamlike show, we follow her from her impoverished, fatherless upbringing prior to skyrocketing to literary fame with the publication of Renascence, a poem she entered into a 1917 contest in The Lyric Year.  The prize was to be a life changing $1,000.  In order to tell this emotionally bountiful and progressively feminist story, first time composer Carmel Dean has beautifully scored the music to Vincent’s (her preferred name) poems.

Renascence is a biographical piece but key figures in her life are given the opportunity to express their feelings using Vincent’s words.  The effect is mesmerizing.  The prose is rich with imagery and the music is simply gorgeous, enhancing the dramatic storytelling and providing layers upon layers of emotional depth that never get in the way of the words themselves.  Clearly one of the best musicals of the year, Renascence is a tour de force on every level.

Jack Cummings III and book writer Dick Scanlon directed this superlative musical.  I loved everything, everything, everything I saw on stage from the entire creative team.  Jen Schriever’s spectacularly fine and nuanced lighting was particularly memorable.  I saw history illuminated from Vincent’s humble beginnings to her expansively larger than life persona.  The creative team let us fill in the visual blanks as we listened and marveled at the never ending cascade of gorgeous prose flowing from the stage at the Abrons Art Center.

Every person in this six member cast was spot on in their (often) multiple characterizations.  As Vincent, Hannah Corneau’s performance of this feisty, flawed and complex woman is astonishingly fine.  Her story arc and personal growth are always believable and clearly delineated, equally sumptuous and scrappy.  Ms. Corneau will likely be someone I see in the future and gladly boast that I saw her in Renascence.  She’s that captivating on stage.

Miraculously fine casting, however, nicely balances this show away from being simply a star vehicle.  Each cast member shines brightly and that is not simply the result of atmospheric lighting.  Vincent’s words and the relationships in her orbit are explored with a breathtaking level of emotional heft and depth.  Mikaela Bennett, Jason Gotay, Danny Harris Kornfeld, Katie Thompson and Donald Webber, Jr. manage to traverse ensemble work and then step into and out of their own riveting spotlight.

Renascence is a triumph musically and theatrically.  There were a few aggressively unimpressed through negative body language types in the audience including the woman who sat next to me and clapped lightly as if it pained her.  I felt sorry for them.  What I saw on stage can be summed up with a few lines from Renascence:  “Of wind blew up to me and thrust/Into my face a miracle/Of orchard-breath, and with the smell, –/I know not how such things can be! –/I breathed my soul back into me.”  Run to see this one.  Or better yet:  dash away/dash away/dash away all.

www.transportgroup.com

www.54below.com

Traveling home, my flight was delayed more than two hours.  Thankfully the pilot told us that we had very strong tailwinds that day so the plane was expected to land faster than usual.  That was fortunate because I had a 7:00 curtain at Ars Nova to see Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of The Future.  From the plane to the monorail to the train to the cab with enough minutes to spare and grab a bevy before taking my seat.  Whew!

First performed in a 2010 concert version during Ars Nova’s ANT Fest, Andrew R. Butler’s musical is now being presented in its world premiere production.  Mr. Butler imagines a world 250 years from now.  As Rags, he informs us that he has served his time as a prison laborer on Mars and is now back on Earth performing in an undisclosed, underground location.  Both Andrew and Rags are singer songwriters.  This musical cleverly conjures a future world and the song lyrics reflect on those times.  What’s the future like?  Here it is filled with outstanding songs expressing themselves amidst a world of love and danger.

Imagine folk music played in a rathskeller where the audience is a diverse mix of humans, synthetics and constructed ones.  Through dialogue and song, Rags tells us his personal journey beginning with “Apocalypse in Tennessee.”  He is also singing songs of The Future, a band in which he was once a member.  The conceit is original, thrilling, topical and timely.  Illegals are not allowed to perform so this gathering is quite secretive.  The Ars Nova space has been ingeniously designed by Laura Jellinek to create an intimate, underground environment.

All of this would simply be creative and interesting science fiction if the music was not particularly memorable.  The tunes are a combination of folk and rock, blues and ballads utilizing a banjo, harmonica, accordion, saxophone, bass, drums and guitars.  The lyrics are poetic and deep with truly memorable, occasionally haunting storytelling that demands focused listening.  Packed with talented performers, the cast is so committed to this show there is not one second where the futuristic backdrop is winked at or abandoned.  As a result, this musical is simply out of this world terrific.

I highly recommend finding a strong tailwind and getting yourself to Ars Nova to see Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of The Future.  Mr. Butler has a great voice and quite a few things to say.  A mirror into the future and a reflection on our times.  Wholly unique and effortlessly satisfying, this new musical is a winner on any theatrical planet.

www.arsnovanyc.com

When Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! closed in 1948, it was the longest running show in Broadway history.  Famed for its seamless melding of book, score and dance, this musical advanced forward the form.  Songs defined characters whether they were soaring ballads or comedic numbers.  I had never seen this classic musical performed professionally so I approached St. Ann’s Warehouse excited to see what was billed as a radical and darker reinterpretation.  The director Daniel Fish is the star of this version and the musical suffers from his indulgences.

Laura Jellinek’s Set Design creates a barnyard dance hall world of all wood.  The audience sits on both sides of the action observing the rather simple story of Laurey (Rebecca Naomi Jones) trying to decide which suitor she will go to a picnic with.  There’s cowboy Curly (Damon Daunno), the hero and real catch, or farmhand Jud (Patrick Vaill, intense and excellent).  For this show to bloom, there has to be more chemistry between Laurie and Curly than was on display.  He occasionally sings at the microphone which is helpful.  If you see this show, sit towards the middle.  I cannot imagine anyone on the ends of the set could clearly hear these performers.

Agnes De Mille’s dream ballet is famous for showing audiences what was in Laurey’s mind about her two suitors.  In this “radical reinterpretation” a singular dancer (Gabrielle Hamilton) wears a white shirt with “DREAM BABY DREAM” printed on it.  The dance is long and largely pointless but there are moments when it focuses on how horny the young’uns can be.  In this choreography, Laurey’s primal urges are displayed by aggressive boot scoots across the floor.  Dog owners will recognize the visual.

There are some genuinely fine moments in this show.  Mary Testa’s Aunt Eller is commanding and her booming voice needs no amplification.  The real core of this Oklahoma! was the love triangle between Ado Annie, Will Parker and Ali Hakim played by Ali Stroker, James Davis and Michael Nathanson.  Each character shined and you could feel the sexual tension of young innocent and not so innocent yearnings.  In their scenes, the show blossomed into the bright golden haze I was hoping to see.

The lights are turned off (more than once) and the book’s darker undertones are brought front and center so you cannot miss them.  Instead of creating real drama, everyone around me became distracted and bored.  No more so than the woman sitting next to me who, at the end of the dream ballet, turned to her companion and said, “I’m not clapping.”  Exiting the theater, you could sense the audience was mixed.  For every “fabulous” there was “a hot mess.”  In this Oklahoma! the ending was altered and made little sense from the story that came before.  For a show famous for its blending of story, song and dance, that’s a fatal flaw.

www.stannswarehouse.org

Based on a novel by Ned Vizzini, Be More Chill is about Jeremy, a high school student who is simply not cool.  The musical opens strongly with “More Than Survive,” a song which covers teenage angst with lyrics like “I feel my stomach filling up with dread.”  The direct audience for this entertaining exercise is the young adults who made this show an internet sensation after its world premiere in 2015 at the Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey.  As of this writing, this sold out off-Broadway show will be transferring to Broadway in February 2019.  The material is definitely strong enough.

Be More Chill is a hybrid of the current Broadway hit Mean Girls and a science fiction young adult adventure.  The school bully Rich is played by Gerard Canonico who looks like Johnny Galecki’s younger brother and is just as funny.  Rich introduces Jeremy to SQUIP, a “super unit quantum intel processor” which can control the brain to help Jeremy learn to act cooler.  In other words, instead of being a nerd, he will “be more chill.”  Naturally things go awry.

Joe Iconis (music and lyrics) and Joe Tracz (book) wrote this show squarely toward the young adult audience.  As a result, the storytelling and, in particular, the multitude of high quality character songs clearly evoke an atmosphere.  As in Mean Girls, another nerd gets their shot to hang with the cool kids.  Thanks to the science fiction angle, the predicaments pile on the nerdy delights.  Jeremy’s friend and love interest Christine (Stephanie Tsu, excellent) expresses her inner geekiness in “I Love Play Rehearsal.”  A knockout performance by George Salazar as Jeremy’s best friend includes the show’s best song, “Michael in the Bathroom,” during the “as also seen in Mean Girls” costume party.

All of this inspired silliness is not necessarily breaking any new ground.  What Be More Chill has in abundance though is style and commitment.  Beowulf Boritt has designed a set which cleverly frames technology’s pervasiveness over this demographic.  Stephen Brackett directed this show with energy and heart, seemingly channeling the telephone singing teens from Bye Bye Birdie into the present iPhone era.  None of this would come together if our hero at the center of this story wasn’t relatable, sweet and misguided.  As Jeremy, Will Roland created a fully detailed, realistically believable character and firmly nails his memorable Act I closer, “Loser Geek Whatever.”

Who is the audience for Be More Chill?  Young adults surely even though there is a playful raunchiness that may be considered slightly offensive to some (“I’m waiting for my porno to load”).  Older theatergoers who want to see an outstanding production while embracing the youthful subject matter.  Broadway audiences?  I hope so but many of the comments I heard exiting the theater were respectful but not completely engaged (“too long” and “I’m not the target audience”).  If you know how to be more chill, grab your tickets and give this sold out phenomena a try.  Maybe you’ll learn to be cooler as a result.

www.bemorechill.com