CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK Musical Theatre, the Remix

Miguel Jarquin-Moreland, center, with the cast of Joe Drymala's Street Lights, directed by Ryan J_ Davis at NYMF_

The ew York Musical Theatre Festival doesn't just pred the future of this ever-changing form-it helps to create it

BY ROB WEINERT-KENDT

WO KOREAN HIPSTERS CLAMBER OUT OF A launching pad, including the commercial hits Next to Normal refrigerator and execute energetic boy-band choreography to a and Altar Boyz. More are likely to go on to professional produc- lively chamber-pop score. Chubby teens line up to compare the tions around the country, Hurwitz points out, including this size of their butts, to the accompaniment of electric guitar. A past year's hip-hop musical Street Lights, which will open at small town haggles over its meat supply, which is tied directly to San Diego's Old Globe Theatre in late February. its booming capital-punishment business. An autistic boy hits "We've had shows in 43 states," Hurwitz boasts. With a computer key with obsessive repetition, triggering a sampled five NYMF shows transferring to commercial Off-Broadway voice: "Pre-pre-pre-pre-president Millard Filmore." runs within the last two years, Hurwitz admits, "We have had This is not your granddad's musical theatre, by any to adjust expectations. The likelihood of shows going from stretch. But some of the most gratifying sights at the New NYMF to a commercial run here in New York is still pretty York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), whose sixth iteration small. So the more we can set up other pathways for artists offered the above diversions among some 50 new shows this and projects to find another life or continue to develop, the past October, are the audiences-fellow theatremakers and better." potential angels, some of them, but chiefly musical-theatre lov- The festival is also a laboratory to develop new sounds ers of all ages and tastes, from button-downed to pierced. and techniques. The 2009 offerings boasted a funkier mix of "These are theatregoers, not insiders," affirms Isaac styles, Hurwitz points out, from the sampling-heavy scores Robert Hurwitz, the festival's co-founder. "It's not a backers' of Street Lights and Max Understood to the frat-rock of Fantasy audition." Indeed, most of the festival's presentations occupy Football and F#@king Up Everything. Indeed, computer-based a fertile middle ground between between experiment and end innovations in both sound and visual projections are leading result, fringe fest and full realization. This makes NYMF a the medium into new areas. And the festival added a bracing powerful draw for aficionados of the form, who turn out to new international flavor, with one show sung in Korean (My see not only tomorrow's hit shows and trends, but to witness Scary Girl), another in Spanish (Anjou: A Tale of Horrori, and shows that may never have a future beyond the festival. yet another in both English and Swahili (Mo Faya). These Some shows, though, have been able to use NYMF as a productions came about mostly fortuitously, and via various

68 AMERICANTHEATRE JANUARY10 - channels-My Scary Girl, for instance, was one half of an exchange with Korea's own Daegu International Musical Festival (they'll get Academy in return this coming June), and Anjou was an import from the TJMTC Mexican Youth Theatre Company. Though it's true that musicals develop and thrive all over, the first two letters of NYMF account for a large part of its influ- ence, and its attraction. "People look to Jew York as the home of musical theatre," Hurwitz says. "There are talented artists and invested producers around the country and the world who want to be sharing in this playground, and their presence here expands opportunities for other artists in the festival." These artists and producers can send out scripts and CDs Corey Boardman, Steven Kane and Wilson Bridges, from the cast of the NYMF musical Academy. all day, but what NYMF offers, Hurwitz sums up, is "an affordable way for people to cane,which told the true story of a devastating the songwriter wrote, the melody lingers on. show a three-dimensional, collaborative art Depression-era storm in broad strokes with a form that very often gets compressed into cast oBO; Bryan Putnam's Holocaust-themed 'Academy' two dimensions." musical drama The Toymaker, the aforemen- The John Mercurio/Andrew Kato musi- American Theatre's editors sampled a tioned Anjou, a historical drama of intrigues cal Academy has an unappetizingly cliched number of NYMF shows; our reports are in 16th-century Paris; and Mark Robertson's premise: It's Goethe's Faust set in an all-boys below. Shows we didn't catch that garnered Marrying Meg, an old-fashioned Scottish prep school. To hammer home this tired positive buzz included Michael Holland and folk tale. The pace and timbre of American reference, the show's freshman protagonist, Eric Bernat's choral/historical epic Hurri- musical theatre may be changing-but as Benji (played appealingly by Steven Kane), rehearses the role of Faust at the local drama club. Fortunately, Academy lightens the grave mood and varies the comic rhythms through Low-Residency MFA Lesley University several quite effective songs that riff on the poignant virtues of French poetry and the Cambridge, MA in Creative Writing sweaty pressures of football practice. And director John Carrafa, a popular Broadway Fiction I Nonfiction I Poetry I Writing for Stage and Screen I Writing for Young People choreographer, possesses the craftsmanship Faculty and polish to create shared ensemble joy. Several heartfelt songs capture the hormonal Kate Snodgrass rush of young men away from home, and are Heideman award-winner and Artistic Director, most thrilling when, chorally, they articulate Boston Playwrights' their hopes, fears, insecurities and dreams Theater ("We won't let them / We must vow / Starting

Jami Brandli now / Somehow we'll find a way to make the Elliot Norton dreams / We dream today come true"). award-winner The "will he sell his soul?" morality Concentration in Writing for Stage and Screen Curriculum includes: Barry Brodsky tale-which centers on a wager between two Independent Reviewers of the boys (Corey Boardman and Wilson • The Art of Dialogue of New England Best Bridges, both superb and sympathetic) about • The Mythical Structure of Screenwriting New Play nominee whether underprivileged Benji will break the • The Three-Act Structure rules to survive his first year-leads to the Visiting Faculty • Writing the Short Play usual intense encounters, secret revelations Wesley Savick, best and ethical dilemmas. Along the way in this • Aristotle in the New World play nominee from 80-minute show, we watch the boys test their • The 36 Dramatic Situations the American Theater mettle and each other, and we get to hear a Critics' Association Learn more: strongly melodic pop-contemporary score lesley .edu/i nto/theatre Sinan One!, winner of and wittily referential lyrics that reflect these the John Gasner Award young men's struggles for self-confidence, .uuLet's wake up the world~M I independence and peer acceptance with fresh- ness and honesty. -Randy Gener

70 AMERICAN THEATRE JANUARY10 ACross That River' preacher, buffalo soldiers, the black woman protests too much. A savvy producer might She brought down the house in the first-act whom Blue loves. As the show's narrator and be forgiven for wondering: Were NYMF finale. She didn't just sell the gospel song "I main character in Wilk's too-episodic script, audiences simply enjoying the against-the- Must Believe" as a powerful anthem against Blue stitches himself in and out of the action, grain absurdity of a musical about sports bondage-an elderly slave woman's ecstatic which treads lightly through these figures fans, most of them beer-swilling dudes who praise-hymn to the ultimate freedom she without ever rising to the level of full-fledged wouldn't be caught dead near a showtune? prays will await her in the next life-no, no, drama. Musically, C1"OSSTbat Riuer samples Or were we genuinely enjoying the show's no, she moved way past merely crossing that from and melds blues, folk, bluegrass, country, witty, well-crafted book and high-powered river; she flew over those dark waters. In jazz and rhythm-and-blues; its strength lies (if occasionally over-familiar) songs on their Andrew Carl Wilk and Allan Harris's Civil in that frequently haunting melange, which own merits? Ingber's fast-paced book tells of War musical C7'OSSThat River, the singer ranges from aching ballads to twangy rousers a testosterone-fueled team of rivals looking Soara-Ioye Ross concluded Act 1by whipping and belted-out spirituals. Harris himself is for a break in early '90s New York, led by a her voice and entire body into the realm of an ingratiating entertainer-a velvet-voiced desk-jockey dreamer (Ben Steinfeld) and a super-earthly pop frenzy. crooner-and an ambitious, gifted composer scheming bookie (Nick Spangler). The period She also derailed the show's NYMF who will someday achieve musical-theatre is drawn in satisfyingly broad strokes, with a production. Ross's character, Mama Lila, is success-as long he keeps his fellow perform- nascent Internet geek (the adorable Patrick a minor signpost within Cross That River's ers from robbing the truthful integrity of his Benedict), rock chicks both Christian (Sam broader narrative, about a young black man own stirring show. -GeneI' Tedaldi) and non- (Emily McNamara), a Wall named Blue (played by Harris) who flees slav- Street sharpie (Rob Hinderliter) and a classic ery in Louisiana to become a Texas cowboy. AFantasy Football: couch potato (JeffNathan). Some of the plot Harris, an acclaimed jazz vocalist, originally The Musical?' points could use some sharpening, and a created the musical as a historically minded Subtitled "a bromantic comedy," David Ing- subplot featuring Steinfeld's mom (Christine solo song cycle. The version at NYMF ber's Fantasy Football is a slick crowd-pleaser Pedi) and a gruff boss (Nick Sullivan) feels attempted to flesh out Blue's rambling journey with a minor identity crisis. If the title's tacked on. But Adam Arian's fleet-footed from bondage to freedom, introducing an question mark doesn't clue us in, the second direction, and a game band under Brian array of Southern and Western characters: a song-"Straight Guys Like Live Performance Usifer, made a reasonably sparkling case for "high yellow" plantation manager, a country Too"-sums up the way this show perhaps the show. -Rob Weinert-Kendi ~

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'Fat Camp' stage full of zaftig actors shake and shimmy, If tweens are the future audience for the under the Midas-touch direction of Alex American musical, then we are in safe-if Timbers, was certainly refreshing-indeed, slightly pudgy-hands with Fat Camp. Randy the performers were positively bootylicious, Blair, the show's co-author and star, has bumping and jumping to Connor Gallagher's described the show as "what would happen choreography. Perhaps most refreshing of all if ajudd Apatow movie had a late-night ren- was that the show, which could have easily dezvous with Diablo Cody's laptop and nine come off as preachy, corny and heavyhanded, months later resulted in a little fat genius baby felt fresh, salient and feather-light every beat who could shred on the electric guitar and of the way. -Eliza Bent dance like Beyonce," Snarky comments, biting satirical dialogue and hilarious yet believable 'F#@King Up Everything' characters mark this comedic coming-of-age Despite a screeching title number that reeks tale, which follows a group of adolescents as of pure attitude, F#@cking UpEverything (or they struggle to shed pounds. Carly Jibson FUE) basically reaffirms the goofy possibility as the larger-than-life camper Daphne was a of heterosexual love. With music and lyrics particular standout from the all-around stellar by David Eric Davis, and a book by Davis Kate Rockwell and Noah Weisberg in cast, as were camp counselors Sarah Saltzberg and Sam Forman, this indie-rock musical F#@cking Up Everything at NYMF. and Clarke Thorell. Blair, who attended a comedy is a breath of fresh, grungy air- weight-loss camp in his youth, told the New even if it treads familiar rowdy ground and The dialogue is catchy, and the score is firmly York Times that he came up with the idea for its plot eventually settles down to follow the classic rock (with stretches of reggae, folk and Fat Camp when he was still in high school. "It up-tempo contours of a screwball roman- country thrown in for entertaining measure). was a response to the advice-slash-criticism tic mix-up. The show's twentysomething At heart, the show throbs with the goofy that all younger character actors get very Brooklyn characters are not simply raunchy sincerity of early Cameron Crowe films. In early in their career, which is, 'You're great, and empty-headed. Set in Williamsburg, fact, at one brief point, the song "Take Me as you're wonderful, you're a genius, you're not FUE pays the compliment of seeing them I Am" and Stephen Brackett's lively staging going to work until you're 50.'" Watching a as actual people with opinions and futures. actually quote the boom-box-blasting scene

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72 AMERICAN THEATRE JANUARY10 from Say Anything. Of course, FUE's charms bird twittering, a bedside alarm, the trickle imagine living on the page, and which doesn't depend on your tolerance for crude songs and of a shower, a distant firetruck-he begins really live on stage quite yet, but which shows too-eccentric-to-be-real details, which Davis to quake, as if in a fit, nearly to the point the potential to expand the possibilities of and Forman indulge in like so many bong hits. that we want to rush the stage to calm him. music in the theatre. -Weinert-Kendt And despite Noah Weisberg's intensely felt Seven-year-old Max (Marlon Sherman) is performance as the nebbishy protagonist, it autistic, and what Carlin and Rasbury have 'Mo Faya' was frequently difficult to see past the glib tried to do with this fragmentary collage DJ Lwanda stands at the center of Eric Wain- contrivances of his character: His name is of a show is to recreate Max's day through aina's political tale, loosely based on real-life Christian Mohammed Schwartzelberg ("My his own easily distracted senses. Jot a lot events in Kenya. Set in the fictitious ghetto family's kind of all over the place spiritually"), happens outwardly-Max wanders outside, community of Kwa Maji, Mo Faya depicts and he does children's puppet shows with worries his well-meaning but stressed-out residents chafing at subpar living conditions figures of No am Chomsky, Annie Leibovitz parents (Michael Winther and Mary Moss- and harsh economic realities-one particu- and Robert Smith of the Cure. There is such berg), exchanges banter with some neighbor- larly funny scene shows the absurd lengths a thing as straining too hard to be hip. Set hood kids and a voluble gardener (Everett citizens must go to attain something as simple these superfluities aside, and F#@cking Up Quinton)-but the journey through the boy's as clean water. Lwanda (played by author Everything will catch you off guard with its brainy inner space is convincingly weird, Wainaina), handsome and level-headed, leads humor, sweetness and warmth. -Gener obsessive and winning. Less rewarding are and inspires his listeners, giving hope to recurring visits to his parents' knotty interior the hopeless, in songs that evoke reggae 'Max Understood' lives; though Rasbury is himself the parent and hip-hop with equal facility. Meanwhile, There's no opening "number," exactly, in of a child with autism, he hasn't found a Anna Mali (Mumbi Kaigwa), a conniving and Nancy Carlin and Michael Rasbury's odd, convincing way to dramatize the grinding greedy real estate diva (think Donald Trump intermittently transfixing not-quite-musical helplessness and serendipitous joys of the as a villainess), has other plans: Conspiring Max Understood, but there's an opening, all perennial caregiver, and his whirling sound- to take over the slums, she sets into action right, and it's a memorable one: A young boy scapes convey a lot more than his pedestrian a series of events which lure Lwanda away stands downstage and stares blankly ahead, lyrics. Director David Schweizer's production to Nairobi, where he searches for fame and and as we hear a swelling chorus of seemingly accordingly conjured a powerful ambience fortune. While Mali organizes a violent unconnected ambient morning sounds-a if not a coherent world. It's a show we can't campaign of terror and murder, and bribes

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Charles Otte has more than twenty years experience in theatre, music and multi-media working with artists such as Robert Wilson, Philip Glass, David Byrne, and Andrei Serban. His work has been seen at The Guthrie Theatre, Lincoln Center, Alliance Theatre, Los Angeles Opera, Open Fist Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Lincoln Presidential Library. At UT, Mr. Otte will offer courses in Integrated Media for Live Performance.

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JANUARY10 AMERICANTHEATRE 73 CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK

government officials and other media outlets song that she's "Leaving for Italy." But it has to keep quiet about it, Lwanda must choose some unexpected comic highlights, like the whether or not to maintain his cushy lifestyle improbably funny scene in wh ich Mi Na and or return home to expose the bloody truth. her friend Jang Mi Gin Hee Kim) steer Dae You can probably guess what happens, but Woo away from using their bathroom; they're this allegory ultimately proves enjoyable, in charming him with coy feminine modesty, large part thanks to catchy songs sung with but what they're hiding is a fresh corpse. great verve. -Bent Though the songs aren't so much integrated, in classic musical fashion, as cheerily grafted 'My Scary Girl' on, Will Aronson's score, set to Kang's lyrics, This disarming mix of chamber-pop, earnest is sunny and tuneful. The ballads manage romantic comedy and creepy horror may have sincerity without treacle, and the uptempo been the festival's most original find. Based numbers bounce without breaking. With a on a Korean film from 2006, and performed stronger-and longer-libretto, this "hor- in Korean with English supertitles that raced romantic" comedy could be a real crossover to keep up with the young, energetic cast, My sensation. Either way, we're glad we caught Sal1Y Girl traces the romantic entanglement of it. =Weinert-Kendt Jin Hee Kim in My Scary Girl, at NYMF. Dae Woo (jae Bum Kim), a nerdy 30-year-old virgin who seems to want a woman mainly to 'Open The Dark Door' ceremonies, carried out not only to bump assuage his persistent lower back pain, and Mi In Open the Darle Do01; David Lefort Nugent up the city's coffers but to punish wayward Na Gin Vi Bang), a pretty art student trying invents a freaky little Midwestern burgh citizens who succumb to the seductions of to put a checkered romantic past behind her- called Mortland, famous for its, er, meat-the sensuality and self-realization. even if it means stuffing murdered ex-lovers same kind of meat they sell in that Fleet Street Nugent's basting of evangelical con- into a crammed kimchi fridge. Kyoung-Ae pie shop you've heard about in another musi- servatism run amok may be dramaturgically Kang's script skips a few beats, particularly cal. The difference in Mortland is that the indebted to classics of the fright-musical in a messy, ambivalent anticlimax; backed executions that provide grist for the grinder genre, but his musical language is deliciously into a corner, Mi Na simply announces in aren't personal-they're state-sanctioned civic fresh and full of original flourishes. He packs

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74 AMERICANTHEATRE JANUARY10 Dark Door with anthems, ballads, patter songs, dirges, hymnic parodies and soaring, romantic arias, all expertly rendered and tailored to make singers shine-particularly strong-voiced Jake Loewenthal as Skip, the conscience-stricken son of the town execu- tioner; Kendal Hartse as Luna, the wigged- out punkette who deflowers him; and Paul Louis Lessard, who landed a NYMF per- formance award for doubling as Mortland's I comically ineffectual sheriff and a hapless I, gay victim of the city fathers' deadly wag- I ging finger. Nugent is a composer to watch. -Jim O'Quinn

AStreet Lights' True to its name, Joe Drymala's Street Lights excels at depicting brightness more than it does darkness. A few rushed moments of violence stand in for all that's scary about the Upper Manhattan neighborhood in which the piece is set. But the kids we meet on the block, even the drug dealer with a heart of gold (Miguel Jarquin-Moreland), are smart and likeable, eager to improve society or at least exceed its expectations. A couple of adult characters-a conflict-averse teacher aim Stanek), a grandmother disillusioned about the activism of her youth (Gayle Turner)-are less idealistic, but this story belongs to the kids, and Drymala has written hip-hop and R&B-inflected songs that wouldn't be out of place on the cast members' iPods. In par- ticular he furthers the case that rap, with its natural momentum and linguistic flexibility, belongs in the musical-theatre toolbox. The show's best numbers begin with samples of gospel songs, protest anthems, even the impatient chimes of closing subway doors, captured on a laptop by an aspiring D]. The bright young protagonists (led by Carla Duren, Chad Carstarphen and Kevin Curtis) are samplers by nature: They look to the beginnings of hip-hop or their elders' civil rights scrapbooks for cues on how to rescue a beloved community music center that the city plans to tear down. These kids want to build on what they didn't live through and don't completely understand, but their hunger for inspiration and "yes-we-can" energy are palpable. Drymala, a former Howard Dean speechwriter, gives Street Lights the emotional uplift of a good political speech, engineered to make its point, if not bear the weight of analysis. Under Ryan]. Davis's direction, its talented young cast takes visible enjoyment in putting songs together, layer by layer. -Nicole Estvanik Taylor i2l

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