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A CurtainUp Review
Marcy in the Galaxy
By Elyse Sommer
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The tide comes in The tide goes out A simple fact of nature children learn about How to accept the ebb and the flow Of the tide coming in And the tide going out. . .— From the song that sums up the balance that Marcy must learn to strike in her life not just as a struggling artist, but as a person dealing with her familial and personal relationships. |
Donna Lynne Champlin as Marcy
(Photo: Carol Rosegg)
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But this is not just another January arriving to shine the spotlight on our regrets about the year just passed. It's a rumination on the whole life cycle —a look at everything that makes our life a constant struggle in which work and personal relationships are, per the theme summarizing penultimate song, all intermingled in a tide that doesn't stand still but has a constant ebb and flow that we must learn to ride.
Mostly this is thirty-nine-year-old Marcy's story, a mix of dialogue and songs (sixteen, plus two reprises) whose yearning melodies and character building lyrics are accompanied by a four-piece combo featuring the soulful sound of a cello and a viola. Marcy, though too much a tunnel vision sort of character is in the best possible hands as played by Donna Lynne Champlin, whose past performances have been jewels in some of the Transport Groups crowning achievements (the musicalsThe Audience, the First Lady Suite, and a straight play, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs).
The Galaxy of the title is a Manhattan diner (not necessarily the Galaxy Diner in Chelsea or on Ninth avenue but any of countless New York diners and cafes), the sort of neighborhood eaterie that has survived the Starbucks invasion. To add to the rueful post- New Year's day set-up, book, lyric and song writer Nancy Shayne has put two lonely and rather unsympathetic older women (Janet Carroll and Mary-Pat Green) at the table next to Marcy's. To them she still seems young and more likely to be swept up in life's rising tides. Of course, you can't have a Greek diner without a wryly observant waiter and Jonathan Hammond fits the bill very nicely, and has a pleasing baritone to boot. On occasion Marcie's mind brings her mom (Teri Ralston) and twin sister (Jenny Fellner) on stage, a second tier separating the real from the imagined.
And so, Marcy in the Galaxy does fit the "simple, little musical " tag in the sense that it has a small cast and orchestra and simple production values, the people sitting at the tables in Sandra Goldmark's two-tiered diner as lit by R. Lee Kennedy bringing to mind Edward Hopper's famous diner painting "Nighthawks." On the other hand, Marcy in the Galaxy is big in the sense that it tries to cover a lot of ground thematically. Marcy must come to grips with the frustration and self-absorbed mindset that has left her broke and lonely after almost twenty years of supporting her painting with temp typing jobs while trying to making it as an artist. She is also coping with the loss of a difficult father, her inability to be open and up front with her mother, and her alienation from and acceptance of her twin sister.
But as life entails a tide that ebbs and flows, so does this big little musical. For starters, the band would be less apt to drown out the lyrics if positioned somewhere in back of the stage, or up in the lovely Connelly Theater's upstairs gallery. Moreover, even the capable Jack Cummings can't prevent a musical in which four of the five characters spend most of the ninety minutes sitting still from having a static, go-nowhere feeling. Still, there's nothing static about some of the terrific songs and there are quite a few, like Marcy and her mother's "Conversations With My Mother" and sister Sharon's "Complex/Simple" that dance right into your ear and beg to be heard again.
Like the price of milk and bread and other staples, the cost of seeing a Transport Group show has gone up. But while no longer quite the super bargain they once were, they're still a better entertainment buy than any show you're likely to see further uptown.
Other Transport shows featuring Donna Lynne Champlin
The Audience
First Lady Suite
The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
It's not easy to create a sense of movement in a show which has the cast sitting in rows most of the time. R. Lee Kennedy's expert lighting go a long way towards meeting this challenge. All those seats also don't leave much room for dancing but then this is a dialogue rather than a dance driven musical. That said, there is Gerry McIntyre's show stopping "Little White Lies." which is a production
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MARCY IN THE GALAXY Book, music, and lyrics by Nancy Shayne, based on a story by Ms. Shayne and Michael Patrick King Directed by artistic director Jack Cummings III Cast: Donna Lynne Champlin (Marcy), Teri Ralston (Peppy), Janet Carroll (Dorothea), Mary-Pat Green (Joyce), Jenny Fellner (Sharon), Jonathan Hammond (The Waiter). Set design, Sandra Goldmark Costume design, Kathryn Rohe Lighting design, R. Lee Kennedy Sound design, Michael Rasbury Orchestra: Mark Berman (Conductor/Piano, arrangements and orchestrations), Garo Yellin (cello), David Gold (viola), Rick Kriska (Clarinet/Flute) Transport Group, 220 East 4 Street, between Avenues A and B. www.transportgroup.org (212) 352-3101 From 3/28/08; opening 4/06/08; closing 4/20/08. Thursday through Saturday and Monday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm, and Sunday at 3pm Tickets are $38; $10 rush tickets are available to students one hour prior to curtain. Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission Reviewed by Elyse Sommer April 3rd press performance Musical Numbers Overture / Orchestra January First / The Waiter, Marcy Not a Consideration / Dorothea, Joyce Keep Me Away/ Marcy Twenty-One/ Marcy, Sharon Conversations With My Mother/ Marcy, Peppy Complex-Simple / Sharon The Marcy Show / Marcy Amazing Destinations /Peppy, Sharon, Marcy Not a Consideration (reprise) / Joyce, Dorothea One Room Mansion / Marcy Who Gets To Shine/ Peppy Justin / Marcy Michigan By Monday /Sharon I Will Blaze/ Marcy Hang In There /Marcy The Tide / Sharon, Marcy Who Gets To Shine (reprise) / The Waiter |
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Wicked
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