Margo is tired.
Exhausted in fact from last night.
Last night may have been my all time favorite theatrical experience....... not "best," mind you or "most compelling" or any nonsense like that ........ but my god what a good time it was .................
WOW.
IN MY LIFE surpassed all negative expectations and I *think* is the single most bizarrely entertaining thing I've ever seen in a professional theatre. I love this show and plan on returning (as often as I can get comps)..
How can't you love a show that has TWO actual musical commercials -- one for Volkswagen, another for Dr. Pepper -- interspersed in the proceedings performed by God himself (in the guise of a man who looks like a combination of Stubby Kaye and Kevin James from the "King of Queens" complete with baseball cap)? I mean, it would be sacreligious not to love this show, right? (there are also product placements for Coca-Cola, General Foods cereals and an odd reference to 7-11 Slurpees).
How can't you not love a show so committed to multiculturalism and diversity that the very blonde, blue-eyed hero's dead mother and sister are portrayed by actors who would appear to be of a VERY different ancestry -- Spanish/Latino perhaps? Or perhaps Italian since the mother sings her first song in that language (though she sings in English for the rest of the show)? Perhaps the recessive genes kicked in with a particular vigor? Perhaps he was adopted? Perhaps they were gypsies who kidnapped him from his crib? It's unclear (as is why the mother is dressed like a 1950s Puerto Rican version of June Cleaver complete with Barbara Billingsley's helmet of a wig?) ....... And by the way, where is the father? -- he's apparently not in heaven or on earth (the show covers both places) ...... was he a bad man who was sent to some musical theatre hell (where this show will end up in due time)? Or was papa just a rollin' stone?
This show is the product of an imagination truly unique in the annals of theatre and not one that really jibes with any conventional notion of what a Broadway show is supposed to be or look like. Director/ book writer/composer/lyricist Joe Brooks has created his own vision of musical theatre that is truly unlike anything anyone else has ever seen or attempted. Mind you, I'm not saying that that's always necessarily a good thing.
Brooks tells a story (that is somehow both underdeveloped, yet exposition heavy) of two young people who meet in a cafe and feel an immediate spark -- he's apparently some musician she's heard of, but it's unclear. He has Tourette's Syndrome, OCD, low self-esteem (and a tragic fashion sense that the show fails to address entirely) yet within 30 seconds of meeting she wants to go home and sleep with him. OK. Fine. It's the '00s -- whatever.
Cheap laughs abound from his condition (I wasn't offended, but could see how some may be). They move in together, fall in love...... it's all very cute and sweet and lovely ..... They discuss their pasts, he tells her about his sister and mother being killed in a car accident -- they both pop up at various times, singing musical numbers.
Anyway, I guess the "heart" of the show is this odd little sweet relationship that plays out in this tiny little tenement apartment set that shifts upstage and downstage, in and out of the center of the action (not sure why they bothered with the expense of it -- half the show takes place there and the setting could have been easily conveyed without it). Brooks has no shortage of syrupy ballads and duets for the two characters -- none of the songs are particularly interesting or distinguished, but hey, there they are.
What makes this show decidedly unique and .... strange, bizarre, crazed, unintentionally funny are these "SCENES" which Brooks has constructed to break up the telling of the central love story. SCENES which elevate what would be a rather moribund and predictable musical into ..... well.... what might be the stuff of theatrical legend.
Shortly after the central couple's initial meeting, an angel from heaven descends (on two wires ......... they apparently got the budget deal from Foy) into the scene. I think he's angel ..... anyway, whatever he is, his name is Winston and he's played by an actor names David Turner who is having the time of his life at the moment ....... and may I say THANK GOD for him. Without Winston, this show is a bad Valerie Bertinelli Lifetime movie (I really just don't get anyone saying Boevers saved anything or that Brooks should cut everything except the central love story -- OMG how incredibly BAD and BORING would that show be?????). With him ......
We end up in heaven, which in Brooks' vision of it, is an endless display of filing cabinets going up as far as the eye can see -- imagine heaven by Staples (are they also a corporate sponsor?). Through a series of "In One" scenes, Winston appears in as a sort of more foppish version of the Emcee from Cabaret and does a series of campy musical turns with a small ensemble -- that they basically have nothing to so with the plot, as it were, I chose to ignore (though there is some nonsense about preparing for God's opera that I never quite understood). In the scenes, he is dressed variously as Klaus Nomi (with a touch of Ziggy Stardust), as a gay glam pirate, as a member of Devo, as Willy Wonka (the Depp version), as Sgt. Pepper and a few others that can't easily be described. The numbers are eye-poppingly bizarre, surreal and a heck of a lot of fun.
This show has its own internal logic that oddly makes sense much of the time. Yes, there are too many ballads and the lyrics are laughably awful and the dramaturgy is sloppy and incomplete and the basic blocking often lacks stage balance (Brooks makes a few Directing 101 mistakes) and there are as many unintentionally funny moments as intentionally funny moments, but you know what? This isn't a "Bad" show. It really isn't. Bizarre? Yes. Surreal? Certainly. But as weird as it gets -- and boy, does it get weird -- it's never less than competently put together. It's visually arresting, yet silly at the same time, like a high camp Robert Wilson or something (and this show a heck of a lot better than the Robert Wilson/Lou Reed musical on the life of Edgar Allan Poe I had to sit through at BAM several seasons ago).
And I have to hand it to Brooks -- for somebody with no professional experience at most of this stuff, he's obviously done his homework and I admire his courage. If only more of our veteran directors and producers had half of his guts or ingenuity, maybe we'd have a more interesting slate of musicals in town right now. The so-called experts keep sending us lame jukebox musicals and pathetic revivals and unimaginative adaptations of movies (though some are good). While Brooks has a lot to learn about book writing and staging (though he does pace the show like a true pro) and his lyrics are beyond help, he could teach a thing or two to some of our big Broadway creative people (I won't mention names) about being entertaining and exploring original concepts and not taking everything so seriously that you squeeze all the fun and spontaneity and life out of a production.
IN MY LIFE has tons of "issues" to be sure which I'm sure the critics will destroy it for, but it's also, in spite of everything, one of the most entertaining shows in town. It's an odd, one-of-a-kind experience that probably won't be around for very long. Go see it -- you'll have a blast.
http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Updated On: 10/2/05 at 04:25 PM