Theater Review by By Ron Fassler . . . .
As someone who can quickly and fondly call up memories of the Broadway production of Once, the Tony Award-winning Best Musical of 2012, a tinge of recognition swept over me even before the launch of the opening number of The Lonely Few, a new musical currently playing at MCC’s Newman Mills Theatre. Sybil Wickersheimer’s sprawling set, which includes an enormous length of a fully functioning bar, is one reason for that frisson of familiarity; another is a rock band set up on the stage. But this isn’t Ireland, it’s some unnamed city in Deep South Kentucky, where certain prejudices still make it difficult for gay people to live their truth openly. As soon as the androgynously dressed Lauren Patten dives into the first song (“God of Nowhere”), backed up by The Lonely Few, the band she fronts, it’s an immersion into the world of a group of misfits all trying to fit in. There’s a whole lot of drinking, many unexpressed secrets, sexual repression, demons being battled, and deadened dreams. When depicted on stage and screens, this can either be expressed by good storytelling or in the banality of all-too-familiar situations. Sadly, it’s the latter here, leaving us to contend with a quintet of wonderful actors/singers trapped in an all-too-predictable plot.
The book, written by Rachel Bonds, is the chief culprit here. I thought her play Jonah, produced by Roundabout Theatre earlier this year, was “funny, profane, penetrating and ultimately moving,” as I wrote in my review. But those skills seem absent here when applied to the well-trodden territory that The Lonely Few characters are forced to go through. Siblings Lila (Lauren Patten) and Adam (Peter Mark Kendall) have a dysfunctional co-dependency (he’s an alcoholic and trapped in a spiral of despair) and she’s dealing with both being gay and with her tamped-down sexual and artistic desires. Dylan (Damon Daunno) plays guitar in the band and, with a pregnant offstage girlfriend, deals with his ambivalence by drinking away his fears. When Amy (Taylor Iman Jones), a gay rock singer, steps into the bar where the band is playing, it triggers an instant attraction between Lila and herself, as well as an opportunity for the band to become the opening act on the low-rent tour Amy’s recording label has set up. Her former stepfather Paul (Thomas Silcott) brings a bit of complexity to things as both bar owner and drummer. Add in JJ (Helen J Shen), a young Asian-American woman piano player, a woefully underdeveloped character, and that’s the whole cast. Work, play, mix and repeat. There’s not much there there.
As for Zoe Sarnak’s music and lyrics, there are some nice ballads and charged-up rock songs, but with the lyrics unintelligible by being dialed to eleven, that presents a challenge even when the songs are performed with commitment, intelligence, and passion, which can’t be faulted. For anyone who saw Patten’s Tony-winning turn in Jagged Little Pill (2020), her dynamic way with a song is truly special. Damen Daunno—who I found a major talent to be reckoned with in The Bengson’s The Lucky Ones and Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma! (he was Curly)—is too stifled by an anemic role with just one solo to make much of an impression. Having seen Taylor Iman Jones in concert—she’s got a tremendous singing voice and powerful stage presence—there is little chance for her to fly here, considering the material she has been handed. Why her character does (or doesn’t do) what she does, is a mystery since nothing is fleshed out in the writing. And considering what’s on the written page for them, I genuinely liked what Thomas Silcott, Helen J Shen, and Peter Mark Kendall brought to the proceedings.
Nor can the sets by Wickersheimer, the costumes by Samantha C. Jones or the lighting by Adam Honoré be faulted. First class all the way. The production’s tight direction by the team of Trip Cullman and Ellenore Scott is sharp, though one wishes they might have contributed more dramaturgically. Surely someone with a resume as long as Cullum’s, creating new plays for more than twenty years, could have better addressed the cliches that prevent The Lonely Few from allowing for anything fresh or surprising.
The Lonely Few. Through June 9 at MCC Theater (511 West 52nd Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues). www.mcctheater.org
Photos: Joan Marcus
