Review: FLASHES OF LIGHT at Sierra Madre Playhouse

From the new musical FLASHES OF LIGHT, we learn that the gods of Olympus are hot. Not only are the gods they hot, they’re positively sizzling. So ionized are these Olympians, they can put a real charge into a mortal when they take an interest. And one especially energized goddess – queen of the storm, Electra, natch! - does just that.

By my count, that’s at least four listless energy puns in one opening paragraph. Said puns were not conceived during this critic’s experience watching FLASHES OF LIGHT, but they might as well have been. That’s about how inspiring this wrong-headed musical spin on the life of Nikola Tesla is in its world premiere at the Sierra Madre Playhouse. With book, music and lyrics by the team of Billy Larkin and Ron Boustead and direction by Jon Lawrence Rivera, FLASHES OF LIGHT directly evokes superior musicals such as RENT and HAMILTON, and its framing device is something out of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. You’ve got a parade of famous Americans coming through to have their say – here an Edison, there a Twain, everywhere a Westinghouse. And you’ve got Nikolas flippin Tesla, father of all things electrical, king of the coil!

Alas, a dopey story combined with campy acting, an uninteresting score and a general air of corniness halt this sloppy mashup of history and mythology in its tracks. The goddess Electra may find Tesla fascinating to the point of jeopardizing her own immortality. The rest of us, not so much.

Honestly, this is barely event Tesla’s tale. The entity we’re supposed to care most deeply about is the insecure goddess (in this play, one can be both) responsible for inspiring/molding the man into becoming the scientific luminary he is destined to become. Or is he? A musical with more on its mind than FLASHES OF LIGHT might have tackled the idea of how much – in this scenario – is Tesla responsible for anything he does and, thereby deserving of his fame? If a god is essentially manipulating the puppet strings, then couldn’t that divine spark have been poured into any other person on earth?

We’ll never know, because Electra (played by Devyn Rush) chooses Tesla (Thomas Winter), a moody, impatient immigrant who – despite his crippling headaches, fear of germs and not very sparkling people skills – seems to fascinate everyone.  He apprentices with, then breaks with, Thomas Edison (Guy Noland) because he’s not getting the credit he deserves and starts a “war of the currents” with his former employer. Tesla’s friend and wingman, Anton Szigeti, (Christopher Romero Sosa), is perpetually left to clean up his friend’s messes. Which are many.

Tesla has his patrons – there’s Mark Twain (Chima Rok) who introduces Tesla to magazine publisher Robert Johnson (Daniel Krause). The men may have access to the bucks, but it’s Robert’s wife, Katharine (Lauren Lorati), with whom Tesla strikes up a deep friendship and with whom he exchanges a ton of heartfelt letters. Amidst FLASHES OF LIGHT’s ocean of blustery, hammy or camped-up performances, it’s Lorati, who sings beautifully, and delivers FLASHES OF LIGHT’s most authentic feeling moments.

Unbeknownst to Tesla (until later, that is), his jolts of inspiration are actually sparked by Electra as part of her mission to, what, earn her God promotion? Electra is informed by the goddess Athena (Nina Kasuya) that in order to ascend to “a more senior position in the realm” of Olympus, she must advance humankind by channeling her spirit into an actual human being who can change the world. Acting as a sort of low comedy advisory panel are dissolute wine god Dionysus (Amir Levi) and “I played with fire” demigod Prometheus (Patrick Munoz) whose banter and bickering with each other gets very stale, very quickly.

A sampling:

Prometheus: “Can’t he just build his motor and be done with it? I mean, when I brought the fire to the people, it was like one and done. I jumped in. I said here’s your fire, and I pulled out.”

Dionysus: “Maybe your father should have pulled out, fire-boy.”

For her part, Electra is restless and unfulfilled just sitting around shooting off lightning bolts, so the opportunity to actually get close to a human being is a welcome change of pace. Except she gets too close and actually enters earth to – don’t do it, goddess! - interact directly with Tesla directly, thereby breaking some sort of rule and causing the equally unfulfilled Tesla to fall in love with her, and she with him. Which threatens to derail the advancements Tesla is making in alternating currents, radio technology and the 20,000 other innovations he is responsible for. It’s every inch a doomed love story, the ending of which we already know.

Separately, our two leads have their moments of charisma (working as they are with stilted or laughable dialogue).  Rush and Winter aren’t given much stage time together, and the interactions they do have are largely lacking in chemistry. And in electricity.

Tesla  - the man, not the company - deserves a better musical fate.

FLASHES OF LIGHT continues through June 9 at 87 West Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre.

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