Review: A New Musical In Its Infancy Cries The Song Of The SIREN: THE MUSIC OF DILLON FELDMAN At 54 Below

Heigh-Ho, My Merry Rainbow readers! Bobby Patrick (We/Us/Our), your RAINBOW Reviewer here. Putting the silent T in cabareT to bring you ALL the Tea!

Ever hear a Siren's call, my rainbow tribe? No, we don't mean the lowercase sirens of police cars & fire trucks, etc, but the Sirens of ancient myth. Those individuals who just seem to always sit on rocks in the ocean eon after eon, singing to sailors in one era and out the other, "Hey Sailor! - crash your boat on these rocks cuz we gave you the hypnotic whammy..."? Those Sirens. So last Monday's sojourn to everybody's fave night spot, 54 Below, yielded up a look-see listening fest for a brand new musical penned by young up-and-comer Dillon Feldman entitled appropriately, SIREN. Produced by Danny Marin (They/Them) Founder/Executive Director of Con Limón Productions with the support of The Shubert Organization's Artistic Circle, the book music and lyrics are all by Feldman and were, presumably, under his direction for this special concert (no indication otherwise was given), the program presented the 15(ish) songs that currently make up the score. At a very tight 1 hour, the show moved right along with an abbreviated version of his magic-realism-based book meant to provide some context and transition between numbers. According to producer Marin, the show follows, "Three sirens (that) are the last vestiges of a community on the verge of extinction when they make the choice to kill a girl from a nearby village to add to their ranks. They are unaware, however, that she (Amara - alternately voiced by Nadia Dandashi, Kim Onah, Leana Rae Concepcion, and Monica Tulia Ramirez) carries a dark past and a grudge with her." The grudge stems from her mother having been murdered by Sirens in the years before the action of the play. This story, though mythic and Greek-ic, is set in the world of today with modern characters speaking modern language with modern sensibilities about family, relationships, the Gods, and murder. That is all that can really be said about the argument of the show since the book was greatly truncated for the concert. Herein is where Bobby will let some early raindrops fall on this rainbow review and add some critic to this critique - while the scenes were well acted and the soundscape of the show quite nicely performed, the story eluded our full understanding since several roles were being played by more than one singing actor and no real connective tissue was offered to take us along the road of who was who.

To be clear though, much of the audience, including the young lady (or they/them) at our table were already in the know either as friends or fans of the show's creator and were entirely THERE FOR IT. Despite losing the thread of the tale a few times and struggling a bit to keep up, the music, the voices, and the acting flowed from the stage wonderfully and offered up real moments that went from touching, to funny, to ridiculous, and with even some spikes up to thrilling throughout. Speaking of thrilling, Allison Griffith (She/Her) as Siren Eurybia - offered up many of the aforementioned spikes throughout the concert. Right from the get-go with the opening number WELCOME TO PARADISE, (joined by Marin, Nadia Dandashi, and Jillian Louis) this welcome-to-the-world-of-the-show number offered the exposition of where we were and why, with real dramatic drive and what a voice! Griffith's vocals together with her commitment to her character's dilemmas and secrets were absolutely palpable and she was paid handsomely in audience appreciation throughout. Sharing the role of Eurybia, the fierce Brittney Mack was another stand-out for the evening on LONELY GIRL - a story song of a young person with dreams in need of hope & fire. The show's lyrics throughout are heavily laced with images of oceans, sky/the air, flying, and birds... lots of birds and more flying, and birds. Adorable Danny Marin singing Siren Anthos's SEAGULLS offered up the lightest vision of the bird imagery with a kind of "POISONING PIGEONS IN THE PARK" comedy song about killing the little flockers. Broadway veteran of 25ish years, Amy Spanger (she/her) - who positively refuses to change - tugged heartstrings with more flight and bird allegory on FLY. In truth, Bobby could go on and give each and every performer props, as all the voices were first rate and all the acting imbued the story songs with just the right amount of heightened realism to make the magical circumstances come alive despite the ever-present barrier of half a dozen music stands between them and their audience.

The music delivered tone poems and melodic allegories akin to all of the soaring, or swimming pictures the lyrics painted. TBH though, some of the songs began to sound the same-ish by the end of the hour. "Were you bored, Bobby?" I can almost hear you ask - No, far from it. "Are Dillon Feldman and his partner Danny Marin a pair to keep an eye on?" - You bet your sweet rainbows they are. With Con Limón Productions' mission statement to create theatre with a strong "WHY," their commitment to gender and ethnic diversity (as evidenced by this cast*) these creators could well be the future and Bobby says bring them on with all their non-binary, color-conscious creative visions making space for the underrepresented. "Is SIREN a musical to watch for down the road?" we hear you queery... We think it might well be. The score of SIREN yielded much beauty on the night and was a fine concert even if little Bobby could not always keep up with the abbreviated story, and if this is early days Bobby deems them well on the way to something truly magical, and so this Siren's song gets our hopeful...

3 ½ Rainbows Out Of 5

See The Online Program For SIREN: THE MUSIC OF DILLON FELDMAN: HERE

Read All About Con Limón Productions On Their Webby Site: HERE

Book Music And Lyrics for SIREN by Dillon Feldman

*Other Responsible parties for SIREN include the Cast Featuring:

Leana Rae Concepcion (she/her)

Nadia Dandashi (she/her)

Allison Griffith (she/her)

Marcy Harriell (she/her)

Troy Iwata (he/him)

Jillian Louis (she/her)

Brittney Mack (she/her)

Danny Marin (they/them)

Kim Onah (she/her)

Amy Spanger (she/her)

Monica Tulia Ramirez (she/her)

With

Music directed by Cynthia Meng (she/her)

Additional orchestrations by Macy Schmidt (she/her)

Band**

MD/Piano - Cynthia Meng

Guitar Doubler - Jakob Reinhardt

Bass Doubler - Sean Murphy

Drummer - Ashley Baier

Cello - Allison Seidner

Violin 1 - Camille Enderlin

Violin 2 - Frédérique Gnaman

**Bobby attempts to pay respect to everyone's pronouns but none were provided here

All Photos By Yours Truly, Bobby Patrick

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