By Kristina Dorsey
Published on 6/2/2000
From TheDay.com
Call it revue No.2 after
exploring the classic music
theater songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein in “Some
Enchanted Evening” in March, the Best Production Company is
dipping into the same genre again with “Songs for a New
World.” Both shows may both adhere to the all-singing, no-plot
style of a revue, but “Songs for a New World” is much hipper
and much deeper than the enjoyable but lightweight “Evening.”
Created by Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown, “Songs”
paints a musical portrait of an urban American landscape
peopled by the unfulfilled haves and the struggling have-nots,
by folks searching for and sometimes finding joy.
As the title suggests, they are searching for – or finding
themselves – in some kind of new world. The journey to a new
world is literal in the number “On the Deck of a Spanish Sailing
Ship, 1492” but becomes more metaphoric throughout the
show. A poor inner-city kid seizes on basketball stardom as a
way out of poverty. A woman settles for a marriage that brings
her every material thing she could want but none of the
soul-satisfying things she needs.
The show’s topicality can sometimes become heavy-handed,
particularly near the end of the second act. For the most part,
though, Brown and Best Director Brett A. Bernardini handle the
complex themes with a light touch. They understand that this is
entertainment, not polemic. Ultimately, despite its focus on
moments of great challenge, the show is about faith and hope.
The songs reflect that perspective. Brown combines
occasionally biting lyrics with a spirited pop score in the
nouveau-
Broadway style of Elton John and Andrew Lloyd Webber. While
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s all-about-romance material in
“Some Enchanted Evening” could be taken out of its original
musical-theater context, Brown’s songs weave together very
specific stories, which give each piece an added dramatic
punch.
Ironically, Brown originally wrote these numbers not for “New
World,” but for his cabaret act. Daisy Prince, the daughter of
legendary Broadway producer/director Hal Prince, suggested
Brown weave the songs into a revue. The result premiered in
New York in 1996, three years before Brown won a Tony Award
for his work on “Parade.”
Even though many of the “New World” songs weren’t intended
to be all of the same piece, they meld together gracefully. At the
Spirit of Broadway Theater, the songs are given finely shaded
readings by the young cast.
Christopher Faison, who was quite good in Best’s “Some
Enchanted Evening,” is downright thrilling in “Songs for a New
World.” His singing is muscular, his acting impassioned. He
provides some of “Songs’ ” powerhouse moments. As the
basketball player, he combines cockiness and an
up-by-the-boot-straps drive. His performance as a death-row
inmate about to be electrocuted, though, is the real stand-out.
As the doomed prisoner, Faison sings the ironic “King of the
World” with strength undercut by the barest hint of fear. He
nicely underplays the anguish until the very end, when he is
strapped into the electric chair and his singing gives way to
panicked breathing.
While Faison finesses the gut-wrenching material, Amy Gallant
cheerfully immerses herself in comedy. Often cast as demure
young things, Gallant exposes her considerable flair for the
comic in “Songs for a New World.” She stops the show as Santa
Claus’ lascivious, frustrated wife, her voice dripping with
Dietrich-accented drama. So what if “Surabaya – Santa” has
nothing to do with the rest of “Songs for a New World.” The
subject matter lacks any connection to a symbolic new world or
to the American landscape, and that would be a huge problem if
the song and the performance weren’t so damned entertaining.
Almost as funny, but more in keeping with the show’s ideas, is
the humorous “Just One Step,” in which Gallant dresses herself
up in a fur stole and a sirloin-thick New Yawk dialect. She steps
into the role of a wealthy but unhappy woman who hangs from
her Fifth Avenue apartment, threatening to jump, and finds she’s
attracting fans and attention from a growing crowd below. In the
Best production, actors pass out popcorn to theatergoers, as if
they’re part of the voyeuristic hordes below the ledge.
The cast’s other two performers, Christine Snitken and Joseph
Torello, aren’t given the kind of rich material that Faison and
Gallant are, but they acquit themselves well. (Torello alternates
performances with Michael Baron.)
Best Production’s decision to follow up one revue with another
was the result of last-minute scrambling rather than long-range
planning. “Some Enchanted Evening” was a late addition to the
schedule, replacing a drama that would have required 26
actors, too many for the still-under-renovation theater to
accommodate.
Yet, the back-to-back shows allow theatergoers to see just how
different revues can be, comparing the old-style “Evening” and
the edgier “New World.”
Even after “Songs for a New World” ends its run in Norwich, it
will live on. Best’s production will represent Connecticut at
September’s American Association of Community Theater/New
England Regional Competition in Harvard, Mass.