‘IN TRANSIT’ (left to right): Nicholas Ward, David Abeles, Margo Seibert & Moya Angela. Photo: Joan Marcus

IN TRANSIT
Book, music & lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, James-Allen Ford, Russ Kaplan & Sara Wordsworth
Conceived with Gregory T. Christopher and Karla Lant
Directed & choreographed by Kathleen Marshall
Circle in the Square
235 West 50th Street
212-239-6202, www.InTransitBroadway.com

By David NouNou

In Transit has to be the most contrived musical of this year–or in many years. I can see where the creators came up with the idea that millions of people ride the subway every day; why not write an a cappella musical about it? It would be about New Yorkers seeing themselves riding the subways and how idyllically their lives get intertwined. Well, what they came up with was a germ of an idea–if I can even call it a germ at that–and riddled it full of clichés.

You have the actress who has been auditioning for 15 years and never got a part but works as a temp in an office. You have the gay couple who wants to get married but one of their mothers is a Texas religious zealot and he introduces his fiancée as a roommate. You have the West Coast girl who was a grad student and left it to come to New York to be with the boyfriend she just met, only to be dumped by him and now she’s running in marathons in order to forget him. You also have the Wall Street tycoon who lost his job, saved nothing and is in desperate need of funds. Also, there is the requisite nasty token-booth lady, the one empty subway car that reeks of stench due to a homeless man, and the ever-annoying delay announcements.

Now for most of us a subway ride is not a pleasant experience. What with crammed cars, pushing and shoving, people hogging two seats, constant delays, it’s an ordeal just to get from point A to point B, but we have to do it because we really don’t have much of a choice. However, the authors, in a delusional manner, figured that chance meetings, romances, altering one’s life can help you move forward with all the nice people you meet on a subway. What a crock.

What it has going for it are some wonderful voices by the entire cast. After all, they have to sing a cappella. Standouts include Moya Angela (who plays three different roles), Justin Guarini, Erin MacKay, Margo Seibert and James Snyder. Kathleen Marshall, the director/choreographer who can usually take dross and turn it into silk, in this case has kept it as dross. As if we haven’t been disappointed enough earlier this year–what a way to end the 2016 Broadway season on another sad note indeed.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published December 14, 2016
Reviewed at press performance on December 13, 2016

‘IN TRANSIT’: The cast. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘IN TRANSIT’: Erin Mackey & company. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘IN TRANSIT’: Margo Seibert & James Snyder. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘IN TRANSIT’: Justin Guarini & Telly Leung. Photo: Joan Marcus

The post ‘In Transit’: Clichés derail a capella musical appeared first on StageZine.

‘ALLEGIANCE’: George Takei & Lea Salonga. Photo: Matthew Murphy

ALLEGIANCE
Book by Marc Acito, Jay Kuo & Lorenzo Thione
Music & lyrics by Jay Kuo
Directed by Stafford Arima
Choreographed by Andrew Palermo
Longacre Theatre
220 West 48th Street
(212-239-6200), www.AllegianceMusical.com

By Scott Harrah

There are so many powerful, interesting, dynamic, heroic tales in Allegiance that it is a shame the musical score bogs them all down. The theatrical axiom states that a musical score should propel the story forward. Sadly, in the case of Allegiance, it brings it to a halt. That’s a shame because otherwise, this is truly an epic drama about a World War II aspect we rarely hear about: The cruel treatment of an estimated 120,000 Japanese Americans in “internment” camps, and Japanese-American soldiers, unsung heroes who proved their loyalty to the stars and stripes by joining the fight against the enemy.

The story is so intense that one is genuinely invested in these characters and their plight and outcome. The uninteresting and banal score could have many songs trimmed and instead used the words as dialogue. The authors should have kept six or seven essential songs and eliminated the rest, because they start sounding the same after awhile and none rises to the occasion of the dialogue. The show, based on real-life events, is so epic that it would make either a fine film or stage drama. Was Allegiance done as a musical to give it more commercial appeal? Perhaps, but by doing so, the creators squandered an opportunity to create a straightforward historical saga about a chapter of American history and World War II that needs to be told. There is enough somber, fascinating substance here to make the material stand on its own, so why all the songs? Other than the moving anthem “Gaman” (meaning “patience” in Japanese), most of the musical numbers just seem distracting. In addition, Andrew Palermo’s choreography is downright pedestrian at times, adding zero to songs that already go nowhere.

Inspired by the true experiences of the show’s star George Takei (Sulu of “Star Trek” fame), the story spans 60 years of the Kimura family, starting out in San Francisco in 2001 and then Salinas, California in 1941 to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming during World War II, with scenes in Italy and France and stops in Washington, DC before and after the war. In 2001, Sam Kimura (Mr. Takei) is an elderly man and is visited by a woman bringing a mysterious envelope from his sister Kei (Tony Award winner Lea Salonga), whom he hasn’t seen in decades. Allegiance is ambitious indeed in its sheer scale and timeline. We see the rural farm areas of California in which Japanese Americans thrived, but had their homes sold for next to nothing and their livelihoods and possessions taken from them as they were placed in internment camps. Japanese Americans were held as prisoners by the U.S. military, with their freedom taken away, not given proper medical care, and forced to claim loyalty to the U.S. on questionnaires.

In the camp, young Sam Kimura (played by Telly Leung) wants to prove his family’s loyalty to the USA by joining the war. Sam befriends and falls in love with nurse Hannah Campbell (Katie Rose Clarke). Hannah understands the unjust ways the military treats the Japanese Americans in the camp, such as denying them badly needed medication, but there is little she can do.

Sam’s loyalty, however, isn’t shared by everyone in the camp. Sister Kei supports and loves Frankie Suzuki (Michael K. Lee), a man who is against Japanese Americans being drafted and is vociferous about the way the U.S. military treats his people. Kei also worries about their ailing grandfather Ojii-chan (played by Mr. Takei in a dual role), a man that loves working in his garden.

However, most of the performances are top notch. One has to marvel at 78-year-old George Takei. Here, he is at his best playing Ojii-chan, a charming old man who brings badly needed levity to the folks in the internment camp. It is his final scene as Sam the war hero—a man who earned a purple heart but lost nearly everything important in his life—that really shows us what a consummate actor Mr. Takei truly is as he breaks down emotionally in the most heartbreaking moment of Allegiance.

Lea Salonga brings multiple layers to the character of Kei and is consistently superb and in fine voice, so it is a pity she is given such mediocre material to sing.

Some of the best performances come from supporting cast members. As Hannah, the bighearted blonde nurse from Nebraska, Katie Rose Clarke is outstanding, giving a naturalistic portrayal of a woman who risks everything to stand up for what is right. Equally evocative is Michael K. Lee as Frankie Suzuki.

Director Stafford Arima gets effective performances from everyone else, but as a whole, he had a tall order indeed, overseeing a project with the best of intentions but, because it was made into a musical, was misguided from the get-go. The timing was more than right for Allegiance with all the current talk about immigration and what it means to be an American. Many stories about World War II and the plight of Japanese Americans remain untold. With some heavy script doctoring, Allegiance could have been a modern classic but as is, it is one big missed opportunity.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published November 15, 2015
Reviewed at press performance on November 14, 2015

‘ALLEGIANCE’: (left to right) Michael K. Lee, George Takei & Lea Salonga. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘ALLEGIANCE’: Telly Leung & Katie Rose Clarke. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘ALLEGIANCE’: Telly Leung (center) & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘ALLEGIANCE’: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘ALLEGIANCE’: Lea Salonga. Photo: Matthew Murphy

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