| Closer Than Ever |
| Scott Zacher [email protected] |
|
Closer Than Ever Porchlight Music Theatre The Running through March 13th, $27-$30 Through the years I have witnessed, with great respect and excitement, Porchlight Theatre’s successfully daring endeavors into challenging modern musicals, culminating in their most recent production, a brilliantly staged version of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Taking a break from the macabre, Porchlight offers up Closer Than Ever - a musical review featuring a collection of songs depicting the joys, disappointments, and foolishness of American life in the 1980’s. Closer, written in
1989 by David Shire and Richard Maltby, Jr., contains
many challenges: a disjointed score with a very weak sense of a timeline or
theme, and characters that rarely carry over from one song to the next - making
it a difficult show to pull off. In the
hands of less-talented companies, Closer
could easily transcend into a languid evening interrupted by repeated checking
of the watch. But, with such a
talented cast and inventive staging, this is definitely not the case here. The two stand-outs of the cast are Rebecca Finnegan and Nicholas Foster. Ms. Finnegan was stunning in her role of Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney, and she excels here as well. Though. her voice at times can be a bit shrill (partly due to the fact that the composer, David Shire, habitually writes his female parts in ranges too high for belting), her performance makes up for this. One can literally see her mind working (most notably in “I’m Not Complaining” and “Miss Byrd”), pulling out unseen dimensions to her characters. Mr. Foster possesses a soaring tenor voice and a rare talent that was last witnessed in his lead role in Bailiwick’s Parade. The rest of the cast, Roger Anderson, Rob Lindley and Holly Stauder, are perfect compliments to these two. Closer is cleverly staged by Nick Bowling, most noticeably in the numbers “There” and “Three Friends”. The set is unobtrusively refreshing – a backdrop of white mismatched apartment doors (reflecting the rather hokey opening song “Doors”, based on the tired message that one’s life can be summarized by the entering and exiting of various doors. Yawn.). Eugene Dizon’s music direction is to be commended, especially evident in the impeccable vocal blending of the group numbers. Extra kudos go to the bass player, Alex Hunter, who tears up the stage with his performance of “Back on Base”. (Note to Mr. Dizon: at times the electric bass overpowers the piano. Perhaps the stringbass could be used throughout the entire show?). Closer Than Ever proved to be a rewarding evening, and I look forward to more of the same in Porchlight Theatre’s upcoming season. Rating: ««« ½ TIP: The theatre space uses general seating, so it’s
beneficial to get to the TIP: Being that the 1980’s saw the rising popularity of
sushi bars, treat yourself to Matsuyama’s, a new sushi restaurant just down the street from the theatre,
featuring free valet parking until |