Daddy Long Legs

The Gem Theatre, in partnership with a handful of companies and producers nationwide, presents Daddy Long Legs (book by John Caird, music and lyrics by Paul Gordon) as its first offering of the season. With direction by Caird, the result is a gorgeous musical about a young woman who writes her life out in letters, and the man who is taken with her words in spite of himself. Her effect on him is no parlor trick: with so much lovely prose set to music, backed by strong character work in sterling performances, the viewer is likely to be just as taken with the delightful protagonists and their intriguing tale.

Based on a 1912 novel by Jean Webster, the story is another entry in the popular orphan-against-all-odds literary canon; here, late-teens Jerusha (Christy Altomare) is rescued from her hated orphanage by an anonymous benefactor, who sends her to college on the grounds that she write him letters and never expect any in return. Through her effusive and detailed monthly correspondence over the course of four years of school, the viewer learns about the foundling’s development as well as the identity of her sponsor, Jervis (Kevin Earley), who only wishes he could be as detached as his postal stonewalling suggests. Caird’s staging maximizes the lack of intersection between the characters: Jerusha lives downstage, facing life — and the audience — head on, whereas Jervis starts out a spectator from his upstage study. With much of the text coming from one-way written conversation, the youthful and appealingly petulant Earley makes capable character work out of reading someone else’s words, which is no small feat. Even so, Altomare’s wonderful, plucky Jerusha is a force to be reckoned with, exhausted by her own exponential development and with an untamed edge to her sweet singing voice. Beyond gaining ground academically and socially, Jerusha desperately wants to feel she knows the man behind the pseudonym “Mr. Smith,” in whom she confides completely; his height is the only detail she has and the basis for the pet name that gives the show its title.

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The Light in the Piazza

The Encore Musical Theatre Company explores a different kind of “classic” musical, transporting the viewer to the Continental classicism of The Light in the Piazza (book by Craig Lucas, music and lyrics by Adam Guettel). The musical’s tale of pure love in the face of distance and disapproval is also an old one, but rich vocal performances of a lyrical score are evocative of newness. Moreover, as directed by Steve DeBruyne, the show complements its storybook tone with indulgent design as well as big comic gestures.

Splendid production values are a highlight of this production, bringing literal and representative details to various locales in 1953 Italy. Rarely are set and lighting design (courtesy of Toni Auletti and Matthew Tomich, respectively) implemented with such exceptional teamwork; a column effect lends a sense of open space befitting an Italian piazza, while at the same time evoking various architectural and cultural landmarks as called for by the script. The mid-twentieth century period comes to life in detailed and impressively accessorized costume design (by Sharon Larkey Urick, with hair and makeup by Cara Manor), and Eileen Obradovich’s properties lend credence to interior scenes in the absence of walls or much furniture. The effect is ancient, artistic, and romantic all at once, entirely befitting the tone of the play. And this is to say nothing of The Encore's new amplification setup, conveying every lyric clear as a bell. (The mikes are almost too good, requiring the viewer to tune out footfalls and rustling costumes; however, the adjustment is minor, and it's a far superior predicament to straining to hear lines of dialogue or song.)

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RoGoCop! The Musical

Now titled Robocop: The Musical, this hit original production has added a final midnight performance at Go Comedy! Improv Theatre on August 11, 2012, as part of the Detroit Improv Festival. The following is the review of last summer's show.

Parody is fun when it takes a common cultural experience and dissects its flaws and quirks. However, a great parody manages to surprise the viewer, even as it adheres to its universally known story. Combining fine writing, abundant production values, and sharp direction by Joe Plambeck, Go Comedy!’s world preimere of RoGoCop! The Musical (book by Sean May, music by May and Ryan Parmenter) brings astonishment and hilarity to an exceptional spoof.

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The Music Man

America is too big and diverse and good and bad and right and wrong to be represented by a single defining story, although if it could, Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man would rank high in the running. The country had changed in the half-century between when Wilson set his musical and when he wrote it, providing a built-in nostalgia that has endured the half-century since. Yet as demonstrated by the Encore Musical Theatre Company’s production, change itself can be a constant: the push of the outside world on a complacent society and the excited tumult it brings still feels defiantly American and abundantly contemporary. Readers should note the performance I attended was the final preview, so the version I saw has likely adapted further, but the production’s prevailing theme of resisting and subsequently transforming in unlikely and welcome ways shone clearly through.

The story of a seasoned con and the spell he casts on little 1912 River City, Iowa, is handled with love by director Jon Huffman and an exuberant cast of more than thirty adults and children. Here, the emphasis is on a buttoned-up community on the precipice of discovery and change, for which traveling salesman and supposed band director Harold Hill (Zachary Barnes) is merely the catalyst — he bilks the town’s parents into enrolling their children in a boy’s band, whose expensive instruments and instruction books and uniforms are billed as a kind of insurance policy against youthful indiscretion. Under the encouragement and tutelage of the “professor,” nearly every member of the population bursts out of his shell and embraces some vibrant form of self-expression that was previously frowned upon by the prim, puritanical town. From a story standpoint, these developments are cast as merely a distraction to keep Harold from being found out, but Huffman’s staging finds traction in these moments; the approach lends a creaky pace to the overarching story of a long con, but pays off in positively sterling discoveries that forgive the weaker fare.

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The Last Five Years

Boy meets girl, with an Edge, reproduced with permission from EncoreMichigan.com.

The Encore Musical Theatre Company is once again flexing a different set of musical muscles. Its Encore on the Edge series provides a home for more unconventional, contemporary fare, encouraging devotees of the classic American musical to discover just how limitless and creative the genre can be. The second entry in the series, Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years, brings familiar, simple storytelling into a cool new context: As directed by Daniel Cooney, the production is a musically gorgeous depiction of a romance from beginning to end, but it subverts expectations by also portraying it from end to beginning.

Jamie and Cathy (Steve DeBruyne and Thalia Schramm) meet, fall in love, marry, and watch their relationship crumble: This is the entirety of the plot, and how the audience witnesses it – through Jamie's eyes, at least. However, through alternating songs and swapped perspectives, the play also takes the opposite view. That is, Cathy's story begins at the breakup and plunges backward, reliving the milestones of their love in reverse order; by the end of the play, she's fresh off the promise of their first date just as he calls it quits. Husband and wife have utterly opposing timelines, and their perspectives on the relationship are as different as their chronology, although Brown's excellent script and thoughtful staging clearly ease the viewer through the unusual concept. What they do have in common is amazing music, which is the absolute pinnacle of this production. The songs have a contemporary feel and structure, especially in terms of shifting keys and meters, but the two performers and three accompanists (led by music director Brian E. Buckner) triumph as they make such loveliness seem so easy.

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