Every once in awhile a show comes along that gives me so much anxiety to write its review that I almost don’t – simply out of goodwill or a false sense of compassion. But, one of the reasons I started to write reviews in the first place was to be the guy willing to say difficult things that could hopefully positively contribute to the community as a whole. I will do my best to find the words that follow, but understand that I take no delight in what’s about to happen.
“Junk Song” is the premiere work of Meg Lambert, who found herself in a difficult time in her life in which she felt compelled to write. She received tremendous support from family and friends – most of which are involved in the production in some way, and I think all were present at the sold out opening performance at which I felt like a stranger with my companion in a big family reunion gala that we crashed.
The problem with art-as-therapy, however, is that if it doesn’t transcend the author’s experience, it can be painful to watch. And, this was exactly that.
The story centers entirely on a single location – the garage of Lucy (Angela Walberg) and Noah (Gabriele Angieri) the day before and the day of a sale. The first act is a “Preview Party” in which all of their closest neighbors and friends, including Tom (Bruce Abas), the third corner of a convoluted love triangle, and a host of other neighbors get to check out the loot before the sale is opened to the public. The second act is the day of the sale itself.
“I want less, less of everything.”
As a play, stripping all of the songs away and being left with just dialogue, you find yourself left with a laundry list of cliché zingers; inconsistent, shallow characters; and a plot so thin and uncompelling that it has no purpose for existing. Slap superfluous songs that dabble in pastiche and traditional musical cabaret, which neither further the plot nor elucidate the characters in any meaningful way, you have a show that’s simply hard to watch. This show is in such a state of infancy, that it needs years of reworking, workshops, and retooling, yet it is currently being presented as a completed work at $20-$35 a seat at the nimbus.
“Please stop. It’s embarrassing.”
This is a show that yearns to be pedantic. It has no audience in mind and thus no thrust for being. We as an audience are vigorously tossed from drama to meager attempts at comedy in a script that doesn’t have an identity. At times the songs are intended to be evocative, and then they are followed by a fart joke. This was a show for no one, without structure or convention. The humor is juvenile and at times downright repulsive. I have never heard so many sexual innuendos about an old woman’s vagina or a man’s desire for wood outside of an 8th grade lunch room. The bad puns abound and the banal, base jokes never stop coming. Oh, did I say coming? Tee hee hee.
What Ms. Lambert must do is figure out what the story is – strip everything away and figure out who the protagonist is and what narrative she wants to tell. Without that focus and discipline the result is a confounding clusterfuck of unoriginal caricatures, simplistic writing, and lackluster songs. What is currently on the nimbus stage is a first act of unnecessary musical monologues with a few semi-catchy ensemble pieces, and a second act that abandons all previously planted plot potentials and devolves into an incomprehensible reconciliation that no one was cheering for. Get back to the basics. Never start a play with a location; start with the initial drive and original visceral response you had to a story and build from there.
“Just because it’s a cliché doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
Huge accolades to a cast who endured such a work and must have the collective patience of all of the Apostles to bring this writer’s vision, with her brother as composer (Tom Cowgill), and niece as director (Becka Linder) to the stage. Angela Walberg, who plays Lucy, outshines the ensemble tenfold as a sturdy, competent singer. While her operatic vibrato doesn’t gel with my personal preference for musical theatre, her talent is undeniable. She did fall out of key more than a few times, but I suspect that to be a technical or spatial issue more than one of ability. The rest of the ensemble, in particular Bruce Abas as Tom, muddle through the tuneless songs as best as they can, clearly not as trained nor experienced as Ms. Walberg. All of the actors on stage gave their sincerest efforts to the production, and the exuberance award goes to Annette Kurek, Lucy’s mother, May, who plays a repulsive human being with much gusto! I hope they are having a blast at least.
I honestly don’t know how to conclude this review. I sort of wish I didn’t write it. Another part of me wishes that I hadn’t seen the show. The delete button or unpublish button are easy escapes to save face, to not be the asshole reviewer and just let people do what makes them happy and let them be. But, I started this blog with the sole purpose to have enough respect for those who have the guts to throw something into the public arena and give them my own subjective, HONEST reaction to the show I experienced. This was such an opinion, and it is with a deep sadness that I will now release this into the world, hoping that something good can come from it.
[1 out of 5 – .5 for a cast who leaves it all on the stage and the other .5 for the unrealized potential of Angela Walberg]
Location:
Nimbus Theatre; 1517 Central Ave. NE, Minneapolis, MN
Dates and Times:
July 19-21 and 24-27, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets:
General Admission $20-$35
For More Information and To Order Tickets:
http://www.upscaletheatre.com
Or Brown Paper Tickets: 1-800-838-3006
http://www.brownpapertickets.com
From the Back Row 