Recorded reminder : Songbook is a showcase for up and coming theater composers.
In this iteration, Matthew Lee Robinson provided book, music and lyrics. Six songs from Happy People and eight from Atlantis were performed on Monday evening. What I really enjoyed this time around was getting a feel for the shows as a whole—some other times, songs by new writers are presented, but sort of scattered throughout the program.
So, Happy People follows the cast of a children’s TV show, both on and off the air, including some backstage intrigue. The opening number on Monday evening was indeed the opening number of Happy People, titled (appropriately enough) Happy People. Each of the four TV characters had a bit of an individual intro and then all four sang together. It was a nice compositional device used to good effect. Sally’s List was an “I Want” number, all about what she’s looking for in the perfect partner, in her case, a man.
We got a touch of drama with See Me, a song sung by the actor who plays a costumed character on the TV show. He wants people to look past the Edison [edited] the Elephant costume and see the man as he really is. Easy for You was an angry duet that worked well enough but probably works a little better in the context of the show. Young was a nice “story” song that I liked but that I wanted to like better than I did.
And then there was Boyband. It’s a song by and about a guy who really, really, really wants to be in a boyband (surprise! this was also taken from the real-life desire of the composer). With clever lyrics that included (and I’m paraphrasing here) “I’m a boy with a hair brush / praying to MTV,” this was a tour de force song and performance. Along the way, we got snippets of story line provided by
Mr. Robinson, who also accompanied all of the pieces on piano, ably assisted by a percussionist, Philip Coiro.
I bring up snippets of story line because that ties in directly with some of the music and tone of Atlantis. In the workshop process for Atlantis, Mr. Robinson has been mentored by Stephen Schwarz and has had some input from representatives of Disney Theatrical Group, among others. In fact, one of the Disney guys said something along the lines of “don’t try to write a Disney musical, write a musical.” Where Happy People has a great deal of upbeat, cute musical styles, owing to the subject matter of a children’s TV show, Atlantis is far more moody.
Prologue was sung by four female performers singing nice harmonies, with a more organic, tribal musical language. Will Run is sung by the heir apparent to the mythical land of Atlantis, and while it’s a nice song, it maybe needs to fight against the Disney style alluded to earlier by the composer.
You Don’t Know Her was a trio by our young hero and his parents, relating to the outsider who has captured the boy’s heart (and certainly his imagination). The song had a nice rhythmic setup that then went into a Stephen Sondheim/Andrew Lloyd Webber groove, in a good way. All of Mr. Robinson’s songs were well crafted, as in you’re not aware of how well crafted they are until after the fact, and they're pretty much all singable and interesting. And while Mr. Robinson is credited with the book, his partner (and recent fiancé) has been contributing greatly to the story line as the creative process continues.
What Are We Waiting For? was an “I/We Want” power duet that was just a bit formulaic, while Let’s Start a War was the real power ballad, dealing with unrequited love, with a slightly dark edge to it. Are You There? was a bit of an emotionally one note existential crisis song that reminded me somewhat of Gethsemane (see ALW, above). No One Will Bruise was also quite powerful (maybe too much of a good thing?) that didn’t quite send me though it was an audience favorite.
Sun brought back our four female singers as the solstice festival approached, and finished with a nice mix of tribal/rock/pop/contemporary soul feeling—plus, once again, some good old-fashioned harmony.
Mr. Robinson is a gifted composer/lyricist who assembled a great, talented cast that presented his music in a great light. He’s got his own website (who doesn’t, except you, ’Meister?), www.matthewleerobinson.com, so you can probably hear some of his stuff for yourselves. Maybe give it a try? I liked an awful lot of what I heard, and I liked it an awful lot.
ConcertMeister
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