Looked great on paper. Songs from one show, Perfect Picture. Book and Lyrics: Ellen Bluestone Sherman; Music: Gail C. Sherman.
Good cast, including Mark Jacoby (Norman Rockwell), Lillias White (Actor A) [uh-oh!], Angel Desai (Actor B), and Crista Moore (Actor C). Actors A, B, and C [uh-oh!] were called upon to play wives, lovers, bosses, government employees, second wives, etc., which got a bit muddy, though the performances were all very good, in this concert version.
I hesitate to single out performances, but Mr. Jacoby projected just the right qualities of nebbish and newly conceived personality pretty well. Ms. White scored best in the somewhat recurring role of blues-y, jazz-y outside commentator.
The story arc followed Norman Rockwell through the rejection of his Four Freedoms project through to its successful completion. The road traveled didn’t quite do it for me. The sister team of composer/lyricist has a good feel and a good vibe. For me, though, there were too many songs that made me go, “Oh, that sounds like … and that’s like … .” They weren’t bad, for songs that were like other show-biz songs. I could walk you through each one, except for the fact that some of them blended into each other. Were they a medley? A montage? Two, three, or four mini songs that sounded similar?
Apparently Perfect Picture has had a few iterations, and this was one that the writing team chose for a distinct distillation. I’m not quite sure it works in this format, though they may be very happy with it. It wasn’t bad, and the music was interesting (if a little derivative). I wouldn’t mind seeing a fully fleshed out production of the piece—it might make more sense to me then.
That said, the sisters know their craft, and they seem to be really in tune with each other on many levels. I could listen to more of their songs.
ConcertMeister
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