HELP! Lennon, my thoughts....

[NYFINCH2]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 12:26pm

The new musical (if you can call it that) Lennon, which opened for previews at The Broadhurst last night, is, one would think, yet another foray into the jukebox musical format so popular of late. In fact, other than it’s central conceit of featuring previously recorded and well-known music, Lennon couldn’t be more dissimilar to Mamma Mia! and All Shook Up. In many ways Lennon has more in common with the Boy from Oz than any other recent Broadway show, and yet stylistically the comparison there is strained as well. Lennon’s central purpose seems to be to relate to an audience the point to point facts of John Lennon’s life while interspersing some of his solo songs along the way as contextual counterpoint. The small cast is best describe as a troupe of players, jumping in and out of characters throughout the evening and all playing John Lennon at some point in the show.
Well, sort of. This bold idea can’t quite find it’s footing and loses the conscience of it’s own convictions. While everyone does play Lennon at some point, there are four actors in the show who play him more than others (the men) and of those four, two, Will Chase and Chad Kimball, who seem to be the “main Lennon’s” with Chase standing out in the title role the most, if for no other reason than his vocal and physical similarity to the actual man himself. His costume also helps. Everyone is dressed in forced-contemporary clothing (evidently neutral black was just too obvious) except for Chase who wares Lennon’s famous New York City T-Shirt, though dyed red here to remind us that, hey- this guy’s not really John Lennon, lest we actually get involved in the character. Chad Kimball, with his Queer-eyed hairdo and oh-so cool jeans, seems about as appropriate for John Lennon as Cher would be for Janis Joplin. (I actually would probably like to see that but for all the wrong reasons.) The women in the cast have little to do, especially a wasted Julia Murney-can this really be her Broadway debut-so they wail their hearts out “BRKLYN”-style at every possible opportunity. Never mind that Lennon’s music is totally inappropriate for the high and loud bellowing so popular on stage these days. Its all singers know how to do these days, and the men are not immune from the trend either. Sometimes whole passages of lyrics are lost in the jumble. One number has the lead singer lead in with “I don’t believe in…” and then nothing but inaudible wailing from the other actors where there should be words. It’s no coincidence that the set looks eerily like that of American Idol: circular playing space, mood-appropriate projections behind the singers and live on-stage band. Terrence Mann attempts to bring some theatrical legitimacy to the evening but ends up, with his mane of gray hair and very tall frame, looking awkward and regretful. I would be regretful too seeing that he is settled with some of the cheapest gags in the show, and there are more than a few of them throughout the evening. The shows sense of humor seemed grossly inappropriate for the material. Occasionally the jokes verged on being offensive (their treatment of India) or even mocking (the “Lion King” birds at the end of “Give Peace a Chance.”)
The show main convention, as can be gleamed from the casting style, is a story-theatre set-up in which a group of players, costume racks visible and used as set peces, relate to an audience, with simple hat or jacket changes and direct exposition, the tale they are telling. Now and again there will be limited dialogue between characters and many of Lennon’s own statements are quoted seamlessly throughout the evening. The failure of this style in Lennon the musical is directly related to the impossibility of relating the narrative of a real life within the strict confinements of point-to-point plot markings. When this brand of theatre is used for relating fairly tales or parables (Godspell has a similar feel), the narratives are deliberately contrived to make this kind of exposition engaging. By forcing the biographical story into this narrative structure, the effect we are left with is nothing more than the simple surface of a life. Nothing of the things that make real life interesting, like psychological complexity, narrative unpredictability or the nuances of interpersonal relationships can have a chance to flower in this didactic and gag-filled format. Nowhere in Lennon is this more damaging than in it’s treatment of John and Yoko’s relationship. Only one actress plays Yoko and neither her, nor the director and “conceiver” Don Scardino, can decide how to portray her. One second she seems nothing like Yoko and sings songs in the pseudo-pop style that pervades the evening, while at other moments she begins to act like the pokerfaced and mysterious woman that we all know Yoko really is, or at least is perceived to be by the public and the press. When Will Chase as John says that the press calling Yoko a “Japanese Witch” upsets him, we have only our collective understanding of the real Yoko to make sense of this.
Even though The Boy From Oz’s book was creaky and simplistic, it’s willingness to actually provide scenes between Peter Allen and the many people in his life, (Liza, Judy, his mother) allowed the actors and the audience some opportunity to emotionally engage in the characters life. In Lennon we are distanced from the natural drama of John’s life, we are simply told about it. This near total lack of dramatization robs the show of any kind of memorable performance. While Hugh Jackman could take an imperfect book and still turn it into one of the greatest Broadway performances in recent memory, Chase and Kimball and the rest of the cast have little to play beyond an accent, which they all do very well it’s worth noting. The Boy From Oz was also lucky to have as its jukebox score the natural showtunes-in-waiting of Peter Allen. Lennon’s music and lyrics are terribly awkward on a stage and difficult to fit into a neat and tidy story; the lack of any of his Beatle’s tunes is certainly conspicuous. Dancing to his songs is clearly awkward and forces the chorographer to resort to what looks often like elaborate line dancing. As for the score itself, I should confess, as far as this writer is concerned, Lennon’s work post-Beatles, save for a couple of good tunes, was simply not that great.
Of course, there is "Imagine", perhaps the best tune John Lennon ever wrote. The shows treatment of this seminal song best displays it’s inability to dramatize the material. The real John Lennon, video-projected onto a screen, performs the song. His sits next to a stone-faced Yoko and sings accompanied only by piano. At the end Yoko smirks and they kiss. It’s the climax, and most touching and insightful moment of the whole evening.

[JulieJordan]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 3:09pm

We must be sharing a brain! Great review, maybe you should help them work on the book!