Expectations

By popular request (um, 2 people), I will be reviewing a musical that I went to see this past weekend at the local theater of my former hometown.

As a little background for non-local readers: The musical was called "Enter Love" and the cast, crew and band were like a who's who of my high school alma mater. The creator of the show is a former principal, the musical arranger was the director of the show choir, the music director was in charge of the show choir band, cast members were former choir members...you get the picture. There was a girl in the cast that seemed to have no connection to any of that, but I swear I knew her too. The only thing I can figure is that perhaps we were in city choir together for a season.

I feel I should start by saying that I am amazed and proud of my hometown for events like this. I don't know why a small town in between Chicago and Indianapolis should be a hub for a thriving artistic community, but it is. It's not necessarily anything that's going to be the focus of a Wikipedia article (my definition of "making it"), but it's better than you would expect for a state not commonly known for it's contributions to culture.

I also want to note where I'm coming from as a critic of the show. No matter how many hours I spent within the confines of the high school music wing, I was always a visitor to world of musical talent. I'm in awe of the residents of that world, who can create melodies out of thin air or recreate what they have heard before on a multitude of instruments or any number of creative things. So whatever I say - the show was an accomplishment for everyone involved. I can't do, so I critique.

Plot/Writing:

The story of the show is...well, I guess that's part of the problem. There is no unifying story, except for the fact that it is 1) about love, and 2) takes place in an airport (mostly in the airport bar, and for the most part relying on the banter between bartender and customer to serve as the exposition for the various stories). If there was a thread or progression to the story, I missed it. None of the characters were developed enough for me to care about them at all. Kurt Vonnegut gave this piece of advice in one of the prefaces to his short story collections, and it has stuck with me for years: "Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water." Now of course he also points out that many great writers break even the most basic of all rules. I don't think it's absolutely necessary to explain every single action your characters make, but I need something more than what I was getting from the story of this show. Even if I could safely assume they wanted water, I couldn't determine whether they wanted it hot or cold, in a glass or from a hose, and perhaps most importantly, I didn't know who they were well enough to know whether I should be rooting for or against them to get the water. It's fine to make your characters morally ambiguous, but I'd like to believe it was on purpose and not just poor writing. Also, unless it's on purpose, I should be able to catch the name of more than 1 of the characters without constant reference to the program.

Basically, as far as plot goes, the focus needed to be narrowed down to just a couple of couples that could be easily identified and fleshed out. Mini-stories between that are fine, so long as they are the story-telling equivalent of one-liner jokes. A, B, punchline C, and then return to developing the people we care about. Ok. All that being said, there were some good laughs in there, especially as it related to airports. Very cute lines that didn't feel like the same old stand-up routine airport humor everyone knows.

Acting:

I'm not going to single this out character by character, I'm just going to say that the vast majority of the acting wasn't bad. There were more good moments than bad, and only in a couple of instances did I cringe from how stilted someone was. It's hard to adjust to a theater that small, for both actors and audience. We were in the back row of a side stage, and at times we were no more than 5 feet from an actor. On one hand, it's theater - the home of exaggerated movements so that everyone can tell what it is going on. On the other hand, when I can tell what color your eyes are from where I'm sitting, there's no need to ham up your background reaction with mouthed side comments and waving arms. An eyebrow will do. There were a couple standout people that I really enjoyed, though. Whether they were singing or delivering lines they were as great as the material would let them be, and sometimes better than it.

Music (Writing & Performance):

The music was great. The best part of the show, by far. And there seemed to be a lot of it, with very little dialogue in between. Now, of course since I thought the music was great and the acting/writing kinda awful, you would think I shouldn't complain about the distribution. But the problem is that it contributed to the issues I mentioned before with the lack of character development and the lack of unified story. Cutting out a couple of numbers may have helped with that. As it was, it felt like the dialogue's only purpose was to lead into the next number. Even then, there were times when I had no idea what the song was supposed to convey in the context of the show. I was just listening to pretty melodies and wishing that we could eschew the banter in between, flesh out the best of the songs, and have everyone stand there and belt them.

The band members that I presume were behind the stage the whole time were fantastic, and I'm not just saying that because I'm less skilled at identifying bad instrumental music. I do have standards for the evaluation. My standards are such that I should forget I'm listening to the band live because they never seem to be going faster/slower than the vocalist and I don't hear any stray notes. Sounds great!

The vocals were great. One or two people were weaker than others, but as a group they sounded fan-fricking-tastic. There were a lot of talented singers in the cast.

Summary:

Ugh. Look, I'm happy I went, and the singing was really great, and again I am so proud that I once crossed paths with so many of the talented people that were involved in creating the show. I am grateful that people are putting new works out there instead of re-doing Grease for the 5th time in 10 years. Or, god forbid, Guys & Dolls. (The next time I have to sit through that show it will be too soon.) Wow, putting it that way, I really do feel better about this show. But I have to be honest - I was constantly looking at my program to see where we were and I actually counted down the last 5 musical numbers of the show, using them as my guidepost to know how much longer it would be. Sorry.

Whatever I say, the show seems to have been a success by local standards. It was sold out before the weekend even started, and according to their website they even had a full house on the dress rehearsal evening, when typically only media attend. I guess they're doing another show this week just to give people one last chance. Kudos.

Bonus:

Would you expect there to be a lesbian couple and a lesbian kiss in the middle of small town America musical theater? It was just a peck, but it was on the lips and the fact that they had headset microphones that blasted the resulting smacking sound made it more emphatic than it normally would have been. Listen, I'm all for it not being a big deal anymore, but I was still a little surprised. Prime-time tv has spent the last 15 years constantly battling the will they or won't they of gay kissing, sharing the bed, etc, and there it was in the middle of the geriatric Sunday matinee of a small Indiana town. Awesome. I would, however, like to point out that just because she's a lesbian doesn't mean you have to put her in the ugliest pantsuit outfit on that stage. Sigh. One step forward, two steps back.