What: The world premiere of Jennifer Ashley Tepper's passion project: a new piece based on the unfinished/unproduced works of the late Jonathan Larson.
And? A mixed experience. It's for sure a treat to hear never-before heard songs from Larson, but they're of inconsistent quality. Similarly inconsistent is the use of screens. The pre-show is full of actual New York footage shot by a human (he was sitting behind me and I heard him discussing it), but the show itself has some clearly digitally-rendered images and the contrast with the real footage we saw earlier makes it look even worse. However, the gifts of real footage from Larson's life, and of people talking about his impact, make the presence of the screens worth it. I will admit that I'm also not sure if the show itself knows what it wants to be. Sometimes it's a straight-up revue, with a performer delivering a song sans connective thread to the other songs. Sometimes it seems like this is a group of five friends gathered to share their work and musings on art and writing. I'm not really sure which one we're dealing with.
But at the end of the day, it's a set of five very talented performers giving their all for each song, and some of the songs are worth the ticket.
 |
| Andy Mientus, Lauren Marcus, Jason Tam, Taylor Iman Jones, and Adam Chanler-Berat. Photo by Joan Marcus. |
3/01/25: Safe House
What: St. Ann's Warehouse and Abbey Theatre present Enda Walsh's new play, with song cycle by Anna Mullarkey, about ... well, that's always hard to say with an Enda Walsh play.
And? Proof that it's hard to say what the story of a piece by Enda Walsh is: after the show the group I attended with gathered to share thoughts. My read was that while I don't know literally what story was being told, I knew thematically that it was about someone searching, through both her past and present, to find a place she could be safe. The person in the group who was raised Catholic was sure that that person was dead the entire span of the play. Others thought she died at some point during it. So ... I don't know that I can tell you what this play is about. But it's engaging, if confusing, and features a great performance by Kate Gilmore.
 |
| Kate Gilmore as Grace. Photo by Teddy Wolff. |
