Reviewed by Judy Richter
TheatreWorks usually is quite successful in
presenting new works, one of its hallmarks. However, it misses the mark with
"Long Story Short," a new musical by Brendan Milburn and Valerie Vigoda based on a play, "An
Infinite Ache,"
by David Schulner.
It's billed as a world premiere, playing in Palo Alto immediately after its
Pittsburgh opening by co-producer City Theatre. Both venues use the same cast
and director, Tracy Brigden.
Milburn
and Vigoda wrote the music, lyrics and book. Besides being married to each
other, they comprise two-thirds (with drummer Gene Lewin) of GrooveLily, a pop-rock band that created
and presented the inventive "Striking 12" at TheatreWorks four years
ago. This time, however, they don't perform. Instead, they leave the acting to
a two-person cast and a four-member band led by musical director-keyboardist William
Liberatore.
"Long
Story Short" starts with the meeting of Charles (Ben Evans) and Hope (Pearl Sun) in Los Angeles. He's Jewish,
recently arrived from New York. She's Chinese American, a native Los Angelean.
They've spent the evening together and have returned to his sparsely furnished
studio apartment (set by Neil Patel), where they're not even sure if they've had an actual
date. Nevertheless, there's a spark between them, and Ben says how nice it
would be if they could dispense with all the preliminaries and just spend their
lives together, ending up in their "Rocking Chairs" watching their
grandchildren play.
A
little woozy from the evening's drinks, Hope wants to take a nap and asks
Charles to awaken her in an hour. She closes her eyes. The lights (design by
Andrew Ostrowski)
flicker, and we realize that several months have passed and that they spend
many nights together in this apartment. From then on, the show whisks us
through their lives: marriage, children, tragedy, career changes, empty nest,
estrangement, reconciliation and finally old age -- with a twist at the end.
Only minor costume changes (designed by Robert C.T. Steele) and a few props reflect the
changes they undergo.
The
music is pleasant enough, though some sameness comes through, and some of the
lyrics are clever, as in "Empowered," the Act 2 opening that finds
Hope experimenting with middle-aged dating. The sound design by Cliff
Caruthers tends
toward too loud, distorting the voices and making the lyrics hard to
understand.
Even
though Evans and Sun are engaging performers who sing well, the show moves so
fast that it glosses over important events that call for more in-depth
treatment, and it leaves little room for character development. Hence, it's
difficult to become emotionally invested in the characters or for the actors to
develop the needed chemistry. Moreover, the plot is so episodic that it becomes
predictable.
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