A few words about this New York Public Library program. A group of writers and composers get together, meet and greet, and then determine who they’d like to work with. The goal is to create a 20-minute musical. This could be a standalone or something they would like to expand further after presenting their short works. Saturday was the first public performance of five of these from this season. There are also two industry people giving feedback after each performance. On to the shows!
Man of My Dreams had three actors and a pianist (who, in this case was also the composer). The score was vaguely pop rock, and our protagonist was a gal who was meeting with her boyfriend who happened to be a blue haired girl—actually a character from a video game. The gal and the ‘boyfriend’ go on actual dates that are both contracted and scripted. Oh, the gal also has a husband. A real-life flesh and blood husband. The romantic triangle that ensues is pretty much left hanging at the end of the 20 minutes. The score and lyrics were pretty good, the performances were good, and the plot was relatively easy to follow.
Elizabeth & Essex had four actors, a fifth person off to one side reading the stage directions, and a pianist/music director (who was not the composer this time). The score, at least parts of it, had a ’20s vibe. The plot was somewhat convoluted and involved a piece of missing mail, a Postal Warden condemning the mailboxes in the lobby of an apartment building, an underground pneumatic tube system for delivering mail from condemned mailboxes, and a Postal Pigeon. I’m not making this up, you know. Oh, the portal to enter the underground place was supposed to be at the corner of Elizabeth and Essex Streets in NYC, which run parallel to each other. (Did I mention a convoluted plot?) The Postal Worker’s song was swell. The title song slightly missed the mark. The Postal Pigeon’s song was hilarious. The minimal staging was witty. All in all, this was my favorite of the five.
Up next was Joybot, the story of an Artificial Intelligence superintendent of a building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The five actors did a very good job of fleshing out the story, which revolved around getting some of the neighbors out of their insular, me-machine lives, and leading to them being real people relating with other as real people again. The music was pleasant enough, though one number dragged on a bit, and there was some nice harmony singing. A pleasant show with pleasant characters and pleasant music.
The Atomic Age – A New Musical followed. The score was vaguely 1950s with some angular harmonies thrown in. The plot involved women in the workplace (punch card operators), two of whom end up hinting at a lesbian friendship/relationship that pretty much destroys the first woman’s marriage. There were references to the beginning of coding and a new, changing world. As one of the panelists noted, the piece sort of couldn’t make up its mind as to whether it had a ’50s vibe or a ’70s vibe.
Dynamo was set in 1929 and dealt with creating new type of energy—hydropower—and the inevitable progress involved. The music wasn’t tremendously of the period, but the plot was interesting and the staging was very interesting. I wasn’t blown away by the music though I wasn’t turned off by it either. And all three actors did very good jobs.
In fact, all of the performers in all five pieces were very good. From a musical standpoint, I found that some of the vocal writing, especially in the high ranges (both female and male) was a bit difficult and made the lyrics a little hard to understand. All told, it was a very enjoyable day letting me experience new theater. Will any of these shows have legs? Only time will tell. There is one more group of plays to be presented toward the end of May. I will be there.
ConcertMeister
No comments:
Post a Comment