SNOW drifts at Spirit of Broadway through June 5

SNOW
Book, Music  and Lyrics by Sean Hartley
Directed by Brett A. Bernardini
at The Spirit of Broadway Theater in Norwich, CT through June 5
www.spiritofbroadway.org

Because of its location tucked away on a side street in Norwich, The Spirit of Broadway Theater often gets overlooked in favor of the larger professional theatres in the state.  This is a shame, because on its tiny thrust stage, surrounded by only 74 seats, some of the most adventurous theatre in Connecticut is happening.  Housed in an historic building that has been handsomely outfitted to reflect its classic New England architecture and a cutting-edge New York-style theatre, The Spirit of Broadway is doing something that a lot of professional theatres are afraid to do - really invest in new, large-scale musicals.  This may sound odd - large-scale musicals in such a tiny space?  Yes, and their current production of Sean Hartley's new musical Snow complete with a cast of thirteen is a testament to the company's willingness to take big risks with a small budget.

Company founder Brett Bernardini serves as the director and music director for this world premiere production and it is evident how seriously he takes his mission to locate, nurture and produce new musicals and to provide opportunity for the next generation of musical theatre performers.   He has provided an artistic home for writer/composer Hartley with this being the third Hartley work to premiere at The Spirit of Broadway.  The development of a new musical is a tricky endeavor, as Bono and The Edge have recently found out.   And so it goes with Snow, a piece that is filled with memorable tunes, smart lyrics, humor and effectively-written drama.  The main challenge for Snow is in the drifting plot and shifting focus of the piece.

Snow is at once sprawling and intimate.  Set over the course of a year in the late 1960s, it uses landmark events to benchmark the moments in the lives of a small circle of individuals who have come to New York City to find or hide from themselves.  The Vietnam War, the moon landing, The Stonewall Riot, drug use and folk music all serve as a backdrop for the national upheaval that was coursing through the nation.  As America collectively shed the innocence of the 1950s with a confluence of war, drugs, sex and music, the characters in Hartley's musical drama experience the same turmoils on a micro-level.

The set is a well-designed jumble of New York in miniature with urban tenaments, park benches, trees, and a neatly tucked-away four-piece rock ensemble.  Although it is supposed to start in the dead of winter, the costuming and barefoot hippies add to a sense of confusion as to the time of year (maybe a little more snow in Snow would help).  The show opens with the catchy folk-rock "You Never Know Where You're Going 'Til You're There," performed brightly by Georgia (Talisa Friedman), Kyle (Nick Anastasia) and Raven (Paul James Lang) around a microphone with an ensemble of city denizens.  It ends up an odd beginning as, although presented as a rock group, Georgia has yet to meet Kyle and Raven.  Redefined blocking would eliminate this sense of initial familiarity that undercuts the fated meeting of Kyle, an itinerant folk singer, and Georgia, a student freshly off the bus from Ohio.

After a charming "meet cute" between the two young lovers, we quickly fast-forward to where the couple now live together and Kyle is already shirking his responsibilities, leaving Georgia to sing the plaintive "Are You Coming Home?"  This all happens in about a ten-minute span, so their relationship feels rushed and underdeveloped.  Considering that the stakes are about to get raised in another five minutes when Kyle meets the folk-singing star/temptress Julia Winter, the audience needs to feel more invested in the new couple.  Kyle immediately ditching Georgia and decamping to pursue his music career is surprising as he seems more like a sweet drifter than a careerist.

In short order, Julia whisks Kyle into her Los Angeles world of cronies, parties and drugs.  Kyle quickly succumbs to the charms of this charmless vixen with the help of a potent mix of cocaine and LSD.  His first trip on "The Snows of Malibu," is bizarrely staged with a masked, Smurf-blue choir twirling white tulle netting around our hapless folk-singing hero.  Note to self:  don't do drugs if this is the likely result.

With all of this happening, the audience has settled into thinking that the main story will revolve around Kyle and Georgia when the spotlight then abruptly shifts to the third party in the band - Raven (a.k.a. Raymond), a conflicted young man just coming to terms with his homosexuality.  In a touching, gay version of Hair's "Frank Mills," we hear about Raven's first crush on a boy in the sweet "Steven Ivy," performed with great sensitivity by Paul James Lang.  Raven has been harboring a crush on Kyle, as well, initially causing a distaste for his rival, Georgia.  After Kyle drops both Raven and Georgia like a bad habit (in favor of a new bad habit), Raven offers to open his apartment to the bereft young lady.  Had Hartley more organically woven Raven's story into the action earlier, it would feel less like a sidetrack from the Georgia-Kyle storyline. 

At this point, Snow starts to go adrift.  We are treated to Raven's first foray into a gay bar where the sassy queen Milton  (the indispensible Stephen Scott Wormley) and his bump-and-grind back-up boys let this new "friend of Dorothy" know in a winking Wizard of Oz-ish number that he is not in Kansas anymore.  Jet, a lesbian drug-dealer that heretofore has only been scowling and shambling around the periphery of the action, opens up to Georgia about how she has grown to accept herself in "I Like What I See."  Act 1 closes with the big gay pride ensemble number "Come Out" in response to the Stonewall Riot, but the number doesn't feature Kyle, Georgia or Raven.  It seems an odd choice to use this event of gay empowerment as a rallying cry for three characters that are not around to be rallied or empowered.  It's like Les Miserables' "One Day More" with Marius, Eponine and Valjean nowhere near the barricades.

The second act begins with Georgia's wistful "Lost in the Snow," one of the show's loveliest songs rendered beautifully by Talisa Friedman.  Kyle, beginning to sense that Julia's world may not be the best place for him, renders the heartfelt song "Home," and then promptly ODs (cue the Smurfs, this time bearing black tulle netting to indicate a bad trip).  Other confrontations, revelations and diversions occur making it feel like Snow has shoveled a little too much onto its plate. 

The score mainly sticks to its pop-folk 1960s milieu and shows Hartley's gift for melody and detailed, witty lyrics, especially in songs like "Are You Coming Home?," "Free Love" and ""Wonderland Street."   A few numbers, "Kansas," "Things Just Happen" and "The Wedding of the Year" in particular, show that Hartley is equally adept at musical-theatre songwriting.  The performances, both musical and dramatic, are uniformly strong with the three leads and Stephen Scott Wormley getting special nods for their performances.  Megan Wingo, although a fine actor, possesses a voice ill-suited for the folk-rock material required for her character Julia, a superstar in the Joni Mitchell vein.  The ensemble sings beautifully and acts effectively in a variety of roles that range from corporate types to tarot-card readers to drag queens.  The lighting by Mike Billings is effectively designed and Steven Hinchey's sound design allows the vocals to shine over the tight rock quartet.  Only the costumes leave something to be desired with some spot-on 60s fashions alongside several Goodwill cast-offs that detract rather than add to the free-spirited feeling of the Free Love Generation.

A place like The Spirit of Broadway is an ideal incubator to gauge audience response and work out the kinks.  Judging from the enthusiastic reception Snow is receiving in Norwich and the company's history of sending new work onto other venues, the show will likely have a second production.  With some judicious trimming and dramaturgical refocusing on the primary relationships in the piece, Snow could pile up many future productions beyond Norwich.

Photo courtesy of The Spirit of Broadway.

 

 

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