New twenty-minute musicals
Honoring Harold Prince
Here’s the premise. All of the writers took part in a summer internship at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts. They were randomly put together, I think by choosing one another, but that was not clearly stated; I may be remembering that from a previous iteration. Hence, across a crowded room.
OK, I saw eight twenty-minute musicals over a span of six hours (including a break for lunch). Each musical had a composer, lyricist, and librettist (sometimes overlapping), so you’re not getting lots of names. Casts ranged from two to eight (with doubling, of course), so you’re not getting a lot of names. I will name all eight musicals (search if you want to). And each musical got approximately ten minutes of live feedback from actual working theater professionals, including some pretty big names (Gerard Alessandrini, Michael John LaChiusa, and Alfred Uhry). I particularly liked that they were not reviews—they were comments on reactions to the works themselves. (Almost ConcertMeister-ish, eh?)
Taking Off (with a reference to Company, since the characters included three flight attendant (plus one who was brought into service as a last-minute replacement). Takeaway: The sky’s the limit, but there’s no limit to the sky. It was less sappy than it looks in print. The piece was very funny, especially in its use of props as gags.
Dybbuk of the Opera (with a reference to Phantom).
This one didn’t quite do it for me. In fact, most of the comments after the fact kept referring to ‘potential’. Not quite the kiss of death, but …
They’re Still Here (A Companion to Follies) needs no real introduction. My notes (which were pretty much backed up by the responses from the panel) included that it was pretty good but lacked a bit of distinction and clarity.
A Life Wide Open was a little scattered. It had hints of Gothic intrigue, and ‘eyes wide open’ featured in the lyrics and the plot. In a slightly heavy handed way, maybe a reference to A Little Night Music?
After the lunch break, we began with The Eyes of Vienna. Apparently it was an homage to Hal Prince’s Paradise Found (a reference lost on me). The two-hander was quirky, at best.
Derailed followed. Hello, Hal Prince’s On the Twentieth Century! This one had the largest cast (eight) playing the largest number of roles (twelve), and featured a real Opening Number!, a cappella barbershop harmonies, and a perfect play on words. Our heroine was on a train that suddenly had no conductor. The only way they could keep going was if someone could keep fueling the locomotive. Our heroine could! Her father taught her everything he knew. Yes, he was … the coal porter! (Ba-DUM-bum-ching!) This was easily the most fully developed of all eight musicals on the program, even if some of the shtick was predictable. Hey, it was funny shtick!
Musical Theatre Will Save the World (and other blatant lies). This one was a little too trite and a little too canned for me. By the time we got to the musical within a musical within a musical, I was over it. I think there may have been one more (too many).
It’s Got to Be Grocer, It’s Green – A Less Bloody Tale of Sweeney Todd. Nancy and Tom sell Beet Pies. Not too many. They develop a new vegan mixture that seems to sell pretty well. Nancy’s beau’s mom is a butcher and is kind of pissed off that Bobby is hanging out with Nancy. Nancy and Tom’s pies take off—especially after Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop is raided. This was a one joke concept, relatively static, that ran its course yet still spun it out pretty well.
A note on the performances—they were all incredibly good. Obviously I had favorites and less than favorites. But there were so many performers that naming them all would mean nothing to you. That said, I must single one out. Alison J. Freeman performed in six of the eight shows. Oh, and she wrote the lyrics and part of the book for one of them as well. Kudos to a well-rounded theater artiste.
ConcertMeister
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