Review - Inner Voices: Solo Musicals & My Favorite Moment From Pamela's First Musical

Spotted at Cafe Edison: Hillary Clinton and Cubby Bernstein in serious conversation huddled over bowls of motzah ball soup. As Leo Frank sang, this is not over yet.

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Don't expect any apparent unifying theme to connect the three short pieces that make up Inner Voices: Solo Musicals. I doubt if you'll find any. What you will find, in varying degrees among the trio, is some rather exquisite musical theatre tackling unconventional subjects with finesse, humor and intriguing characters.

Paulette Haupt, Artistic Director of Premieres, commissioned three pairs of authors for the ninety-minute intermissionless evening that fits very cozily in the intimate Zipper Factory Theatre. Each piece has its own director, music director, musicians - even its own area of the Zipper stage - sharing only the minimal visuals provided by production designer Dane Laffrey.

The most musically and dramatically complex piece of the evening comes first. Michael John LaChiusa (music) and Ellen Fitzhugh's (book) Tres Ninas (the program and press materials do not specify a lyricist and I'll make no assumptions) has Victoria Clark lounging comfortably on an old couch wearing but a slip as an unnamed Southern Californian relating three experiences from her past regarding illegal Mexican immigrants. As an 11-year-old living in temporary government housing ("Daddy says there's nothing more permanent.") she and two neighboring girls make a game out of sneaking out of their homes and taking food to a Mexican family hiding in a nearby cave. Years later, as a young mother in need of a nanny, she's introduced to the system by which Americans can find all the domestic help they can fit in their car trunks and sneak across the border. Later still, she tells of a crazy night where on a whim she decides to help an 18-year-old Mexican lad lose his virginity, and of the unexpected results of her fling. Played by music director Todd Almond on piano and Michael Aarons on guitar, LaChiusa's music is quiet and vulnerable, enhanced by light Spanish moods. Directed by Jonathan Butterell, Clark is extraordinarily effective subtly balancing the character's humanitarian urges with a fear of and discomfort around those who are different. Her singing is superbly natural, giving an acting performance that seamlessly blends sung and spoken word in this engrossing character study.

The mood temporarily shifts to something bouncier and a bit comical when Jenny Giering (music) and Laura Harrington's (book) Alice Unwrapped (again, no lyricist specified) takes the stage. Alice, a 15-year-old New Yorker, has taken to dressing head to toe in her own homemade protective gear ("It's like an all terrain vehicle for the body."). While her insistence that her choice of clothing is far less a problem than the self destructive behavior of some of her classmates is amusing at first, we eventually find that Alice's army reservist dad has disappeared while stationed in the Middle East, leaving her to be the strong one for her little sister and bedridden mother. While the story of an adolescent's desire for normalcy in a world where she's expected to be the grownup has promise, the words and music (played by music director Julia McBride at piano) both lack texture. Directed by Jeremy Dobrish, Jennifer Damiano, the junior high school student who was so impressive last season in Next To Normal, once again gives a strong acting and singing turn.

Barbara Walsh is featured in the slightly whimsical high comedy A Thousand Words Come To Mind, a humorous literary adventure with book and lyrics by Michele Lowe and a jazzy/bluesy score by Scott Davenport Richards. Jack Cummings III directs and music director John DiPinto is at piano with Marc Schmied. She plays a woman whose hospitalized, cancer-stricken mother suddenly insists she was the inspiration for several characters written note-worthy authors, most notably Steena, the first love of the protagonist in Phillip Roth's The Human Stain. Her quest to fulfill mom's dying wish for proof is the kind of clever material that Walsh has a special flair for and the sophisticated colors of score, particularly its smoky torch-song finish, are expressed vividly by the actress.

While I'm certainly a fan of some of mindless fun musicals that go for well over $100 a ticket these days, the chance to see three cerebrally-minded works involving some of musical theatre's top talent for only $20 makes Inner Voices: Solo Musicals a no-brainer.

Photos by Andy Criss: Top to Bottom: Victoria Clark, Jennifer Damiano and Barbara Walsh.

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I'm of the ilk that believes you can't have enough valentines to musical theatre so naturally an enthusiastic smile came to my face upon hearing the opening chords of that big, rousing overture to Pamela's First Musical, presented in concert at Town Hall Sunday afternoon as a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Theatre Development Fund's Open Doors Program.

This one would most likely have hit town much sooner if it weren't for the unfortunate passings of its composer, the great theatre jazzman Cy Coleman and bookwriter, the touching and humorous Wendy Wasserstein. But fortunately lyricist David Zippel never gave up on the project. While its same-named source (I'm so relieved they didn't call it Pamela's First Musical: The Musical) is Wasserstein's 1996 children's book that served as an introduction to the many types of performers, creators, businesspeople, craftspeople, technicians and staff that go into making an evening (or a matinee in this case) at the theatre, the musical expands on the theme of the importance of collaboration in both theatre and family life.

Young Lila Coogan won over the audience immediately with her big belty vocals and endearing charm as Pamela, and Donna Murphy seemed to be having a blast playing the gregarious aunt who introduces her to the magic of Broadway. But my favorite moment in the show came in a scene at Sardi's where Michael Riedel made a quick appearance as Broadway's most hard-to-please critic. The character has one of the show's best songs, a Gilbert & Sullivan style patter about everything he hates, but instead of treating the audience to the musical theatre talents of Bar Centrale's most controversial patron, David Garrison, playing a producer, said something like, "I've spent so many years trying to figure out that guy I bet I know exactly what he's thinking," and performed the number (quite brilliantly) himself.

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