“The Big Picture”
This charming musical has music and lyrics by Adam Gwon, is
directed by Isaac Lamb and music direction and piano by Eric Nordin. It is playing at their space, 12850 SW Grant
Ave. in Tigard. For more information, go
to their site at www.broadwayrose.org
or call 503-620-5262.
We are all interconnected and we all have our stories to
tell. Sometimes full of
regrets…sometimes of joy, sometimes both…but we do matter because our stories
are stories within other peoples’ stories.
And so, the big picture may not be for the big buck or the fame…but to
make a lot of small, positive differences in other folks’ lives. We all have our roles to play, as the Bard
would say, so best make the best of it before “…our little lives are rounded
with a sleep.”
In this production, all four roles are sung throughout,
virtually no spoken dialogue and so their songs are the story. Essentially there are two stories of two
pairs of people going on. There is Deb
(Quinland Fitzgerald), a small-town girl moving to the Big Apple to make a Big
mark in life in a Big way. But, instead,
ends up in graduate school, still searching for that elusive…something out
there.
Along the way she meets Warren (Seth M. Renne), who seems to
live life vicariously. He makes leaflets
with witty sayings, which he passes out to people on the street, and fronts for
an artist who’s in jail and who has a fab apartment that overlooks the whole of
the city. He also collects bits and
pieces of people’s lives that have been discarded, like old photos, scraps of
notes, and a fateful notebook that will lead him to Deb…and their relationship
then evolves.
Then, there is Jason (Benjamin Tissell), another newbie to
the big city, who hooks up with Claire (Kailey Rhodes) and since they both
seems to sense an attraction, they move in together. But attraction alone is only going to last so
long, as they both have past histories that will invade their personal
spaces. Also, living together shows up
the little differences between people, as to their own personal stuff, as to
what they like in entertainment, as to goals, even little things like choices
in wine or type of foods they like and friends they have. So, as they say, the honeymoon phase dwindles
in face of cold, hard reality.
All these lives will connect in a very odd but clever
way. I cannot tell you more without
being a spoiler. But what seems like
chaos at first in staging (only a set of stairs building, tower-like, to a
piano at the top of it, designer, Emily Wilken), becomes a whole world and
because of the lyrics (Gwon), terrific voices (the cast), the amazing piano-man
(Nordin), some subtle but clever lighting (Carl Faber) and a very talented
director (Lamb), who blends it all, amazing well, into a lovely story of love,
loss and life. Reality is in the “…eye
of the beholder” here, and so it is with this world, as simple elements, on the
surface, magically become a whole world of connecting and conflicting events.
I highly recommend this show. If you do choose to see it, please tell them
Dennis sent you.
--DJS
No comments:
Post a Comment