Review: CLOSER THAN EVER Opens Door to Directing for Leigh Barrett

Lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr.; music by David Shire; conceived by Steven Scott Smith; directed by Leigh Barrett; musical direction, Jim Rice; scenic designer, Jon Savage; costume designer, Miranda Kau Giurleo; lighting designer, Christopher Brusberg; sound designer and engineer, Michael Policare; assistant director and choreographer, Ryan Began; stage manager, Natalie A. Lynch

Cast:

Leigh Barrett, Woman #1; David Foley, Man #2; Brian Richard Robinson, Man #1; Kathy St. George, Woman #2; Jim Rice, piano; John Styklunas, bass

Performances and Tickets:

Now through September 28, New Repertory Theatre, Charles Mosesian Theater, Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown, Mass.; tickets are $25-$60 and may be purchased online at www.newrep.org or by calling the Box Office at 617-923-8487.

CLOSER THAN EVER, Richard Maltby and David Shire's 1989 musical revue - oops, make that song cycle (the composers and director are adamant that this is a "bookless book musical," not a revue) - may be one of those performance pieces that is more satisfying to the artist than the audience. Filled with slice-of-life songs which tell complete stories and give actor/singers the chance to travel through full emotional arcs every three or four minutes, CLOSER THAN EVER delves musically into the age-old topics of people coming together, falling apart, standing alone, and reconnecting with deeper understanding than they had before. The trouble is, without a clear dramatic storyline, songs are easily forgotten and momentum never builds. One can certainly appreciate the talents of the performers and the cleverness of individual compositions, but the denouement of four middle-aged people becoming "closer than ever" after years of trials and tribulations feels empty and contrived.

Still, Leigh Barrett, making an impressive professional directorial debut in this New Repertory Theatre production, guides her cast of four - David Foley, Brian Richard Robinson, the ever delightful Kathy St. George, and herself - breezily through the show's 26 contemporary songs. Pianist Jim Rice and bassist John Styklunas provide able accompaniment from center stage.

The women deliver most of the evening's highlights, with St. George scoring time after time as the comic genius of the production. She makes mincemeat out of a non-committal Foley in the bitter break-up song "You Wanna Be My Friend?" and then lets her hair down as the sexy "Miss Byrd," the promiscuous property manager who shows would-be male tenants a lot more than just the apartments she is renting. She sizzles again in "Back on Base," getting a hot and jazzy assist from Styklunas on bass, and finds both the humor and the pathos in the clever musicalized psychotherapy session in which she admits that neither she nor her husband were ever really "There."

As a scientist who studies animal behavior, Barrett mines the list song "The Bear, the Tiger, the Hamster and the Mole" for all the lessons men and women could learn about relationships and sexuality. Later she turns pensive about the price we pay for relationships and independence in the ironic "Life Story," the haunting "Patterns" and the cautiously optimistic "It's Never That Easy" which halfway through glides effortlessly into a touching duet with St. George's "I've Been Here Before."

Robinson nicely handles the simultaneous joys and regrets of being "One of the Good Guys," but at times during the evening he seems to be struggling to hold pitch. Foley, too, hits the occasional errant note or two, but his "If I Sing," a loving tribute to the deceased father whose musical legacy continues to live on in every song the son now sings, is the most emotionally satisfying performance of the cycle.

Barrett, with the help of assistant director and choreographer Ryan Began, has injected buoyant fun into several group numbers. "Dating Again" is a veritable mash-up of speed dating and musical chairs, while "There's Nothing Like It" lets the cast enjoy (or not?) flexing their middle-aged muscles at the gym. "The March of Time" makes clever use of wheeled office chairs as the quartet quite literally rolls from one decade to another. "Fathers of Fathers" is a tender but also thrilling exploration by Foley, Robinson and pianist Rice (who also joins in on vocals) of the shifting landscape of relationships as sons become fathers and fathers become sons. Rice's singing is every bit as expressive as his gentle piano playing.

Given the intimacy of the material, one wonders why Barrett, music director Rice and sound designer and engineer Michael Policare chose to use concert-style body microphones to amplify this more than able cast of actor/singers. New Rep's Mosesian Theater is a small enough space, with good enough natural acoustics, to allow for a subtler sound design. Even with the cast never more than 10 feet away from the piano and bass, it seemed at times that the singers were out of tune with the instruments. Occasionally the harshness of the electronic amplification also served as a barrier between the character and the emotion.

Nonetheless, CLOSER THAN EVER has its rewards, especially given the smart treatment by New Rep. While not a knockout season opener, it demonstrates that Barrett, one of Boston's most formidable musical theater talents, is now also ready for the big leagues as a director.

PHOTOS BY ANDREW BRILLIANT: Jim Rice (piano), Brian Richard Robinson, Leigh Barrett, David Foley, Kathy St. George and John Styklunas (bass); Kathy St. George; Leigh Barrett and Kathy St. George; Jim Rice, David Foley, John Styklunas and Brian Richard Robinson; Leigh Barrett