SITE GUIDE
SEARCH
REVIEWS
REVIEW ARCHIVES
ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP
FEATURES
NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings
LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
NYC Restaurants
BOOKS and CDs
OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
A CurtainUp Berkshire Review
A Little More Alive
By Elyse Sommer
|
Pot At A Funeral might Seem Unusual — From opening number by Nate which shows him using his usual escape-from-reality mechanism after his mother's death from a long illness. His defiant musical monologue continues with Pot At A Funeral/Is Kinda Like Poop In A Urinal. |
L-R: Van Hughes and Michael Tacconi |
I was looking forward to seeing whether Nick Blaemire could be as good working behind the scenes as on stage (his playing the lead in Found contributed mightily towards that recent musical). Unfortunately, Blaemire though clearly talented, versatile and ambitious, is not ready for prime time as a triple tasker.
For starters, at twenty-nine Nate, the stoner son at the center of this world premiere, is a bit too old for a coming of age story. Van Hughes as well as Michael Tacconi as his accomplished, go-getting younger brother Jeremy are attractive performers. But they're saddled with material not worthy of their talents. Both have fine voices that the over-miked sound system and Vadim Feichtner's band drown out. Actually, this might be considered as much a plus as a minus, since the lyrics are for the most part treacly and awkward. The voice numbing sound system also hurts the rest of the ensemble which includes Broadway veteran Daniel Jenkins as their father.
That said, this story of a family in grief over a painful death and having to cope with family tensions and a newly discovered secret about mom's past might work — that is, if Blaemire, who's a better composer than book and lyric writer, hadn't been determined to do it all himself. Even when he turned the libretto over to someone else it didn't help Glory Days to escape an inglorious quick closing.
Blaemire has fared better being on stage, as he did as the lead in the high profile Off-Broadway musical Found . For sure, A Little More Alive would have benefited from his focusing on his composing since even his strong sense of rhythm and melody here suffers from being too one-note as well as the unnecessarily over-miked band.
Director Sheryl Kaller has done her best to make the show a little more alive, with handsome production values. These include a splendidly efficient set by Kris Stone, expertly lit by Jeff Croiter, as well as Caite Hevner Kemps story enriching projections of the family's home movies. But when Kaller and choreographer Lisa Shriver have Nate deliver one of the better numbers, "On A High" it seems more a an effort to keep things lively than a move towards a solid, clarifying climax.
Despite the excellent stage craft and able cast , there's no overcoming the show's inherent weakness — the inability to really keep the audience engaged. Consequently, even with a few touching songs, especially the exuberant final "I Miss," this is a long 95 minutes.
|
A Little More Alive Book, Music And Lyrics By Nick Blaemire Directed by Sheryl Keller Cast: Van Hughes (Nate), Michael Tacconi (Jeremy), Daniel Jenkins (Gene), Nicolette Robinson (Lizzie), Emily Walton (Molly); (Also film cast: Rachel Bay Jones-Maggie, David Christopher Wells-Robert, Oliver Stern- Young Nate,Rowen Williams-Young Jeremy, Joseph Kennedy-Teenage Nate, Billy McFadden - Teenage Jeremy) Sets: Kris Stone Costumes: China Lee Lighting: Jeff Croiter Sound: Lindsay Jones Projections: Caite Hevner Kemp Orchestrations: Charlie B. Rosen Vocal Designer: AnnMarie Milazzo Choreography: Lisa Shriver Stage Manager: Mark Dobrow Running Time: 95 minutes, no intermission Musical Theater Lab production at St. Germain Stage, Pittsfield Reviewed by Elyse Sommer at 7/22/15 press preview Song List: Pot at a Funeral/ Nate Home Movies (Prelude)/ Gene, Nate and Jeremy Remember It Differently /Jeremy Every Single Memory/ Nate and Jeremy Good Morning /Lizzie, Jeremy, Gene and Nate Nobody Tells You /Lizzie, Jeremy, Gene and Nate Stick Around /Lizzie Home Movies /Gene, Jeremy, Lizzie and Nate Here /Gene On A High /Nate Driving /Jeremy, Nate and Lizzie With The Trees/ Molly and Nate Quartet /Lizzie, Jeremy, Nate and Molly I Miss /Gene, Jeremy and Nate |
|
REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V): Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email. . .also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review. For a feed to reviews and features as they are posted add http://curtainupnewlinks.blogspot.com to your reader Curtainup at Facebook . . . Curtainup at Twitter Subscribe to our FREE email updates: E-mail: esommer@curtainup.comesommer@curtainup.com put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message. If you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to CurtainUp and from what part of the country. |
Fun Home -CD
The King and I -CD
American in Paris -CD