IF/THEN, in spite of a wonderful score, is frustrating

IF/THEN is a musical with score by Tom Kitt and libretto by Brian Yorkey who also collaborated on the multi-award winning NEXT TO NORMAL, which laid the foundation for a major change in the American musical theatre—the development of musical dramas.  IF/THEN is now on stage at Lakeland Civic Theatre.

I was in the fourth-row center on opening night in National Theatre, Washington, D.C., on November 5, 2013 when IF/THEN opened its preview run before going to Broadway.  

My reaction to the show was that Idina Menzel, the star of RENT and WICKED, who was playing the leading role, was mesmerizing.  I found the music meaningful, the sets creative, and the electronic visuals attention-getting. Anthony Rapp, of RENT and YOU’RE A GOOD MAN CHARLIE BROWN fame, played dual roles with musical and dramatic strength, and the rest of the cast was excellent.

However, the production was too long—almost four hours.  It was also hard to keep the separate storylines in focus as a woman leads parallel lives simultaneously, surrounded by a group of friends who play a part in each of her lives. The second act, except for the ending, is clearer than the first, which lays out the extended exposition.

The show opened on Broadway to mixed reviews on March 5, 2014.  In spite of the critiques, the production ran 401 performances, almost a year.  The box office surge was credited to Menzel and Rapp being in the cast, not to the vehicle.  

The story centers on newly divorced 38-year old Elizabeth, an urban planner who moves back to New York for a fresh-start.  As the musical begins, she meets with her friends, Lucas, a community organizer, and Kate, a kindergarten teacher, in Madison Square Park. 

Kate suggests that the “new” Elizabeth start over by using the name “Liz.”  Lucas urges her to go back to being called “Beth,” which she used in college.  This is the first of the choices that Elizabeth has to make regarding the two paths she might choose to follow.  

As we watch, the parallel lives of Liz and Beth develop.  

Liz is approached by Josh, an Army doctor returning from his second tour of duty.  She rebuffs him, but “accidentally” they meet several times again, and love is in the air.  The question of where choice and chance collide becomes a major factor in the plot development.  A professorship, relationship, pregnancy, marriage, redeployment, death, and more life-decisions follow.

Beth, on the other hand, meets up with Stephen, an old friend and colleague, who offers her a job.  Beth and Stephen work together, become close friends, but part because he is married.  Beth calls Lucas, and they spend the night together.  Beth gets pregnant, doesn’t tell Lucas, and has an abortion.  She dedicates herself to work and wins planning awards and becomes a noted activist.  After a near death experience while on a business trip, she rekindles her relationship with Lucas.  Stephen gets divorced and comes to her to express regrets that he didn’t pursue a relationship and offers her a job in state government. Beth refuses and decides that she must go on without him.

As the play comes to a close, Beth, Lucas and Kate are having coffee in the park, Josh returns home from his third tour of duty, he approaches her and she lets him buy her some coffee. (Fade to black…)

Lakeland’s production, under the direction of Martin Friedman, is well done, but despite the focused staging, the convoluted story just can’t be overcome. 

The cast is universally strong.  Sandra Emerick as Elizabeth/Beth/Liz displays a powerful singing voice, does a nice job of singing meanings, and creates a real person.  Her “Always Starting Over” is compelling.

Michael Knobloch, though a little young for the role of Lucas, sings and performs with conviction.  His “You Don’t Have to Love Me” was well-done.

Michael Snider is macho/charming as Josh.  His “Hey Kid” creates wonderful images.  “I Hate You,” a duet with Liz, is endearing.

Braelin Andrzejewski (Kate) and Jacqueline DiFrangia (Elana) and Nick Hribar (David) are basically convincing in their characterizations.

The creative fragmented set by Trad A Burns, duplicates the plot by using reflective segments of panels, a dual-imaged NY skyline, and multiple doorways for entrances and exits.

Musical Director Matthew Dolan does a nice job with the choral blending, working with the leads to create meaning to the words of the songs, and keeping the orchestra under control so they don’t drown out the vocalists.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: IF/THEN has a wonderful score.  Too bad somewhere in the show’s development, the confusing plot and excessive length weren’t dealt with. 

Tickets for IF/THEN, which runs through February 16, 2020 at Lakeland Community College, can be ordered by calling 440-525-7134 or going on line to http://lakelandcc.edu/academic/arts/theatre/index.asp

Lakeland Civic Theatre’s “Freaky Friday” is missing the freaky!

“Freaky Friday” is a musical based on the 1972 book by Mary Rodgers.  Yes, the daughter of Richard Rodgers, composer of such classic musicals as “Oklahoma” and “Carousel.”  Others are aware that she collaborated on the musicals “Once Upon a Mattress” and “The Mad Show.” Some might know that she is the mother of Tony Winning composer, Adam Guettel (“The Light in the Plaza”).  

Her endearing book was made into 1976 and 2003 films.

As in the book and film version, the storyline centers on Katherine, the overworked, obsessive-compulsive, stressed-out mother of Ellie, a sarcastic, self-involved, angst-driven teenager, who lives life in constant emotional self-imposed “drama queen” hell. 

Through a quirk of fate, the duo switches bodies, and then has one day to put things back. 

Yes, it’s one day before Katherine’s wedding, and both females are about to find out what it’s like to live life in the other’s body surrounded by wedding plans, school stresses, a runaway kid, burgeoning love, mistaken identities, and the loss of the device which “caused” the biological time-switch to take place. 

The musical was produced at the Cleveland Playhouse in April, 2017, with Broadway’s Heidi Blickenstaff and Emma Hunton in the lead roles.  Of that production, I wrote, “if you don’t go see “Freaky Friday” you are going to miss out on a special event.” 

I wish I could say the same thing for the Lakeland production, but I can’t.

“Freaky Friday” is a farce. Okay, not a totally well-written one, but it is still a farce.  Farces are meant to delight the audience.

Things started well as the psychedelic set designed by Aaron Benson created the right off-kilter mood. 

The overture and “Just One Day” did a good job of developing the exposition, getting us ready for the “delight” that was supposed to come. 

Matthew Dolan and his orchestra did a masterful job of underscoring, rather than drowning out the performers.  They played the pop-rock score by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey well. (The mediocre score includes “What You Got,” “Oh, Biology,” “Busted,”” Just One Day,” and “No More Fear.”)

To make the script display its farcical level, requires letting out all the slap-stick, over-done physical and humorous stops.  This, of course is dependent upon the director building in shticks and gimmicks and the cast being able to pull off all the exaggeration, making each character a caricature.

Director Martin Friedman has given us some great theater. His Sondheim productions usually are top-tier and his recent production of “The Bridges of Madison County,” was an award winner.

Somehow, Friedman seems to have missed the key to “Freaky Friday.”  The needed cartoon characterizations, emphasis on the ridiculous, and creative staging were missing.  The performance seemed under-rehearsed and not well thought-out.

The director needed to make his cast aware of the qualities of farce.  As is, many acted, rather than reacted to the material.  Preset gestures and fake facial expressions, signs of bad performance, peppered the stage.

In spite of what was going on around her Trinidad Snider, as has come to be expected from this very talented woman, gave a stellar performance as Katherine/Ellie.  Her version of “After All of This and Everything” was beautiful. “Today and Ev’ry Day,” her duet with Alley Massey (Ellie) was nicely done.  Massey consistently sang well.

Rick McGuigan nicely developed the role of Mike, Katherine’s fiancé.

Jay Lee had the right touch as Adam, the high school hunk who Ellie lusts after.  “Women and Sandwiches” was delightful.  Several of the female high school students were on track.

The static and mechanically performed choreography didn’t help much to create the right mood.  The same could be said for the costumes, which were often ill-fitting and lacking in the needed visual polish.  In one scene, a lead actress came on stage with her dress inside out…label and seams exposed.

Capsule judgment: “Freaky Friday” is a farce which should delight an audience.  As is, except for the audience member on opening night who thought he was at a football game, and kept loudly cheering “way to go” and “good job” after each song and scene, the production should disappoint many.  Too bad!

“Freaky Friday” runs Friday and Saturdays at 7:30 and at 2 on Sundays February 1 through 17 at Lakeland Community College, 7700 Clocktower Drive, Kirtland. For tickets call 440-525-7134.  (The college is only 10 minutes from the 90-271 split!)

Well-performed, but uninspired “A Little Night Music,” @ Lakeland Civic Theatre

Like much of the works of Stephen Sondheim, from the start, “Little Night Music” proves to be a different type of musical.  Rather than a traditional overture, one-by-one, a quintet of singers, who will act like a Greek chorus throughout the production commenting on varying situations, introducing the audience to characters and clarify the plot’s goings on, enter, tuning up their voices.  Eventually, they blend into an overture composed of different songs from the score. 

Sondheim, an eight-time Tony winner, whose works are noted for their lyrical sophistication and musical complexity, is oft praised by critics and underappreciated by the general public.

His musicals abandon the romantic plots favored by Lerner and Loewe and Rogers and Hammerstein.  This is ironic since, from the age of ten, Sondheim was mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II, the father of his boyhood friend. 

His works tend to be dark, exploring the ironic, grittier and unglamorous sides of both present and past life. 

He finds inspiration in the unlikeliest of sources—the opening of Japan to Western trade for “Pacific Overtures,” a legendary murderous barber seeking revenge in the Industrial Age of London for “Sweeney Todd,” the paintings of Georges Serrate for “Sunday In The Park With George,” fairy tales for “Into The Woods,” and a collection of individuals intent on eliminating the President of the United States in “Assassins.”  Even his one true comedy, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” centered on slavery in ancient Rome.
   
“A Little Night Music,” with a book by Hugh Wheeler, was inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s film, Smiles of a Summer Night, and exposes the lives of several couples, including such topics as infidelity, verbal relational abuse, and birth out of wedlock.  The play’s title is a literal English translation for Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik.

As is often the case with Sondheim, the score has elements not often found in musical theater.  Its complex meters, pitch changes and high notes for both males and females present a challenge for performers. 

The story “explores the tangled web of affairs centered around actress, Desirée Armfeldt, and the men who love her: a lawyer, Fredrik Egerman and the Count Carl-Magnus Malcom.  When the traveling actress performs in Fredrik's town, the estranged lovers rekindle their passion.  This strikes a flurry of jealousy and suspicion between Desirée, Fredrik, Fredrick's wife, Anne, Desirée's current lover, the Count, and the Count's wife, Charlotte.  Both men – as well as their jealous wives – agree to join Desirée and her family for a weekend in the country at Desirée's mother's estate. With everyone in one place, infinite possibilities of new romances and second chances bring endless surprises.”

The show contains “A Weekend in the Country” and “Send in the Clowns,” two of Sondheim’s most well-known compositions.  Also in the score are “The Glorious Life,” “In Praise of Women,” and “The Miller’s Son.”

The vocalizations in the Lakeland production are well performed, as are the musical sounds of the orchestra. 

As has come to be expected, Trinidad Snider displays strong vocal abilities and acting skills as Desiree.  Her “Send in the Clowns” was masterful.  Singing meanings, not just words, she brought depth and clarity to the song.

Though his acting generally stays on the surface, Rob Albrecht (Frederick), sings well in “Now” and “You Must Meet My Wife.”

Talented Eric Fancher, another vocal and acting master, creates a properly self-loathing Henrik, Frederick’s son, who is hopelessly in love with his step-mother.

Meg Martinez masterfully interprets “The Miller’s Son.”

Ian Atwood is properly pompous as Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, and Neely Gevaart shines as Countess Charlote Malcolm, his put-upon wife, who gets her revenge.

The rest of cast is also strong.

What’s missing is variance of performance tempo, and the charm and playfulness written into the script, but not translated onto the stage.  This is surprising as director Martin Friedman, a Sondheim expert, has displayed over and over in Sondheim stagings, his ability to bring life into the writer’s works. 

The scenic and lighting designs work well and Kelsey Tomlinson’s costumes are era correct.  The choreography is serviceable, though not overly creative.

Capsule judgment: In spite of a talented cast, “A Little Night Music” is uninspired and not up to the usual high level of Lakeland’s Sondheim script presentations. 

“A Little Night Music” runs Friday and Saturdays at 7:30 and at 2 on Sundays September 7 through 30 at Lakeland Community College, 7700 Clocktower Drive, Kirtland. For tickets call 440-525-7134.  (The college is only 10 minutes from the 90-271 split!)