BWW Reviews: PILGRIMS MUSA AND SHERI IN THE NEW WORLD at ACT

There are very few new and original stories in the world today.  Most things are just a rehash or new take on the familiar formula.  Boy meets girl and complications arise.  This is the standard romantic comedy premise that's been around since Tarzan met Jane or Tracy met Hepburn.  Such is the case with the Culture Clash romantic comedy from Yussef El Guindi, "Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World" currently at Seattle's ACT.  With crisp and engaging dialog, El Guindi has taken an interesting new spin on the same old formula.

Good natured Egyptian cab driver Musa (Shanga Parker) has met and fallen for sassy American waitress Sheri (Carol Roscoe).  The two of them seem to be going along just fine as they discover more and more about each other and their respective cultures when familial obligations from Musa's past crop up in the form of the lovely and more "appropriate" Gamila (Kimberley Sustad) and then the Shawarma really hits the fan.  Add into that the street wise luggage vendor, Tayyib (Sylvester Foday Kamara) and the otherworldly apparition, Abdallah (Anthony LeRoy Fuller) and you have the recipe for a quirky romantic comedy for the new millennium.  But that's all it is, just another romantic comedy.  Beyond its cultural nuances and religious undertones, there's nothing that truly wowed me.

The cast is likable.  Kamara and Fuller take their small moments on stage and make them shine with humor and depth.  Sustad is stirring as the girl caught between two cultures.  Her understated and focused performance was probably my favorite of the night.  And Parker and Roscoe are adorable and charming as the couple just trying to create their own world rather than fitting in to anyone else's.  Parker's quiet sweetness is the perfect offset for Roscoe's boisterous brashness and the two manage a lovely character arc as you watch their traits meld into each other's as the play goes on.

But when all is said and done it was really your standard rom com.  Yes, there were some nice elements of the two finding their own worlds outside of the way they were raised (hence the title of the play) but at its core, there was not much to set it apart.  Don't get me wrong; as I said the dialog is wonderful and the performances were top notch and it was a nice entertaining evening.  I would have just liked a little something new to really give it that edge.  But with this kind of concise writing I look forward to more from El Guindi just hopefully with something more to say. 

"Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World" performs at ACT through July 17^th.  For tickets or information, contact the ACT box office at 206-292-7676 or visit them online at www.acttheatre.org.

Photo credit: Chris Bennion