Boston Herald
Sunday, June 24, 2001
Revue changes `World'
by Robert Nesti
``Songs for a New World,'' presented by the SpeakEasy Stage Company,
at the
Lyric Stage, Boston, through Tuesday.
``Songs for a New World,'' Jason Robert Brown's eclectic collection
of story
songs, is one of the most strikingly original musical revues to appear
in
quite some time.
In fact, its uniqueness nearly defies description. Lacking plot or an
obvious theme, the production simply offers an introduction to the
work of
this gifted songwriter, who brings a pop sensibility to the musical
theater
scene.
The show is served up in a concert-style production (a reprise of last
November's much-heralded Boston premiere by the SpeakEasy Stage Company)
that bursts with the talents of 14 of this area's best performers.
The
combination proves nearly combustible.
Brown, one of a new generation of songwriters whose work is changing
the
face of the musical theater, conceived of the revue nearly a decade
ago as a
showcase for some songs he had written while in college and as a struggling
composer-performer living in New York. It appeared briefly off-Broadway
in
1995, but a recording from that production quickly achieved cult status
and
led to more productions around the country. (Brown went on to write
the Tony
Award-winning score to ``Parade'' in 1998.)
The SpeakEasy production, staged by Paul Daigneault, is performed
concert-style, a simple approach that works extremely well with the
dramatic
demands of the 16 songs assembled here. Evoking a variety of pop music
styles - from Paul Simon-like pop to jazz, rock, rhythm and blues,
gospel,
even country - Brown's music has immediate appeal.
To this, add his narrative skills, and you have a revue that challenges
as
much as it entertains.
Each song tells a dark story with the conciseness of a good one-act
play.
Brown can be witty, as in ``Surabaya-Santa,'' his droll takeoff on
Kurt
Weill in which an angry Mrs. Claus lashes out at her husband, here
fetchingly performed by cabaret favorite Belle Linda Halpern. Or richly
ironic, as with ``Stars and the Moon,'' the show's best-known number
nicely
rendered by Stacey Cervellino.
There's a dynamic turn by Jose Delgado who brings emotional depth to
``The
Steam Train,'' the story of doomed ambitions of a ghetto youth, and
the
gifted Bridget Beirne turns ``Christmas Lullaby'' into an expressive
country-style ballad.
The range of emotions here is simply extraordinary, and they are well
matched by the cast (and the five on-stage musicians, under the precise
direction of Paul Katz). Their dedication to this material is apparent
throughout.