 |
|
The New York Musical Theatre Festival 2015
Parts of the show are conceptually fascinating. Examining how the left-behind waif, Constance (Melanie Stone), struggles to move past her promise of eternal devotion to her one-time lover (Jon Peter Lewis, of American Idol fame) and find new happiness with the stalwart woodcutter Friedrich (Sherwood), makes for a thoughtful meditation on how far we're really willing to go for those we care about. And the lover (here called Old Bones), literally unstoppable in his quest to make Constance live up to her promise at any cost, is a compelling character we want to get to know better. We never do, however. A total lack of dialogue and generic, rock-limning lyrics don't help, and certainly don't make haste in nudging things along. Everyone needs a say, and needs it often, until we reach the arbitrary, and stunningly abrupt, endpoint. Because the tale and its relationships are cast in only the broadest strokes, the movements of choreographer Ray Mercer's swirling dance corps are beautiful but extraneous, and directors Lewis and Michael Rader can't plumb the material for richer plot content or more passionate emotions. Despite how frequently the word "love" is sung—it's in the titles of six of the evening's 25 songs, and sung in many others—there's not much of it to feel. A program note explains that Deep Love began on the West Coast in rock concert form; if Rader and his writers wish to continue refining this into a full-fledged musical, they need to shed all the vestiges of that previous existence. With the exception of Sherwood, whose ragged voice and vacant acting carve a grave-size hole out of the momentum, the cast is all at least up to the challenge: Lewis, who wields his voice as a violent caress, and Stone, who sacrifices Constance's sanity bit by bit, brings some clear stakes to the writing that does not seem quite sure what to do with them. Amy Whitcomb, who plays the from-afar woman Friedrich ignores in favor of the spoken-for Constance, is better still. When this scorching, scorned bird sings, wailing to the rafters of the loss she's determined to avenge, it's impossible to say for certain whether you're at a concert, a musical, or some entirely new fusion of the two. Whitcomb is the only one who gives you something you can't get at The Phantom of the Opera or anywhere else; otherwise, Deep Love is unrequited.
Deep Love
|
