Mishmash musical is odd triumph

by Taylor Coe '13
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

In reference to Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World, the word “musical” should be used carefully. The Untitled-at-Large production last Friday and Saturday, directed by Danielle Burby ’12 with musical direction by Leigh Pomeranz ’13, might be studiously referred to as a song-cycle rather than a musical.

While one might endlessly debate how to classify this production, I don’t think it’s unfair to tag it as a glorious mess. There’s no plot to speak of—not even a glimpse of a steady character—but somehow, as if by some sort of demented trick, the music holds everything together and leaves nothing by the wayside.

There was, I suppose, a loose, general theme to the musical. But any attempt to put the puzzle pieces into place has only left me feeling unsatisfied. Curious as it sounds, I think that these songs were not meant to cohere. The closest this song-cycle comes to coherence is within the course of each single song.

“Each song is that moment in a person’s life when it all falls to pieces,” said Burby. “They realize that life isn’t what they thought it was or they realize that they made a huge mistake…they have to either go forward or stay the same.”

The songs all reflect this wistful idea, and some of the numbers are startling in their sensible, self-contained beauty. The stuttering, suicide-prone “Just One Step”—performed by Andrea Wrobel ’13 from the window ledge at the back of the chapel—demanded my attention with every sputtering syllable and every madcap movement of Wrobel’s figure. Junior Liz Chapin’s caricature of Mrs. Claus in “Surabaya Santa” and senior Meg Clary’s despondent existentialism in “Stars and the Moon” were equally brilliant.

Although the singing was lovely, it would have sounded empty without the crackerjack pit of Tim Carman ’11 on drums, Chris Eaton ’12 on bass and Leigh Pomeranz ’13 on piano. Carman and Eaton’s rhythm section was always ready to provide the songs with a driving beat or delicate brushstrokes; without that duo, the cast would only have been able to manage the pretty skeletons of a musical.

That said, the economy of the production—while visually appealing—suffered in terms of the sound. Without any microphones onstage, the pit often overwhelmed the singers’ voices. For a group of songs whose stories could only emerge from the lyrics, it proved a difficulty when words and phrases were lost behind piano chords and cymbal hits.

Despite the technological gaffes, the show managed to be a success. That word, “despite,” characterizes my feeling of the production. Despite everything that could have gone wrong or could have felt misinformed, the show was lovely.  

With Believe in Broadway as a springboard, this production has continued the practice of utilizing theater performances on the Hamilton campus to raise money for charity. In part because director Burby’s sister is a juvenile diabetic, the proceeds of the show went to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The show raised $720 for the charity over three shows, including $100 donated by the Chapel’s Sunday morning offertory.