I went to see what I think is the second preview of "Inner Voices: Solo Musicals" tonight. And if this is a barometer for the 2008-09 season of new musicals, then we can all do a happy dance because the dry spell of exciting new musicals seems to have finally ended. "Inner Voices" is made up of three one-woman musicals, the concept apparently being that if Alan Bennett could make an evening of three separate monologues with "Talking Heads," why shouldn't musical theatre attempt the same thing. Instead of finding one composer to write a whole slew of solo musicals, we here have three different works from three different writing teams. The first, and probably the one that sounds the best on paper is "Tres Ninas" (there's a tilde over that second n, but I'm not going to go through the extra effort of putting one in), and it's composed by Michel John LaChiusa (with book by Ellen Fitzhugh) and stars Victoria Clark. With Victoria Clark performing this, there was really no way it could actually be bad. She one's of those singing actresses that is just spins everything she touches into musical theatrical gold. Which is not to say that LaChiusa and Fitzhugh have given her garbage to work with. I've had a bit of a love/hate relationship for LaChiusa's work - I'm a fan of his "Marie Christine" (though that featured another of those magical women, Audra McDonald), "The Wild Party," and "Hello Again" (the latter of which I only know from the cast recording), I like parts of "See What I Wanna See" and "First Lady Suite," and I intensely dislike his "Little Fish" and "Bernarda Alba." Lately I'd been finding that he'd sort of fallen into that trap where all of his music was just sounding the same. Thankfully here, if I hadn't known he'd composed "Tres Ninas" I would have never guessed it was him. I found the music to be extremely accessible and fresh sounding. I found the three stories that make up the musical (about three girls - which I think is what the title means in Spanish) all held be interest, and they definitely had me tearing up a bit. All three had somewhat odd endings that left me sort of scratching my head, but I can't say that really bothered me all that much. And of course Victoria Clark's performance in the three roles, wearing nothing but a slip, and with only a couch, an ashtray, and some lights on the otherwise bare stage, was as spectacular as one would expect.
The second musical, "Alice Unwrapped," was from a composer I thought I didn't know - Jenny Giering, but after reading her bio after the show, it turns out I saw her show "The Mistress Cycle" (at NYMF), and I seem to remember liking that. Her book writer was Laura Harrington, and starring in this musical was Jennifer Damiano. When I read about this show, I knew Victoria Clark and Barbara Walsh (who performs the last), but didn't think I knew Damiano. Well, from the minute she walked on stage, I knew I had seen her somewhere before. It took me a few minutes, but I finally remembered I had seen her in "Next to Normal" off-Broadway. I'm going back and forth as to whether "Alice Unwrapped" or "Tres Ninas" was my favorite of the three. "Alice Unwrapped," is about a teenage girl whose father is in Iraq, and who tries to hold her emotionally crumbling family together as best she can, even though she's not really doing so well herself. This one is also a tear jerker (even moreso than the first). Again, the music was melodic and accessible, and Damiano's performance was really very impressive, considering she's a junior in high school (or so her bio says). I was mighty impressed.
With the first two being so strong, I suppose it was inevitable that I would be let down by the third, "A Thousand Words Come To Mind," by Michele Lowe and Scott Davenport Richards, and starring the wonderful Barbara Walsh. It's not that it was bad, but I found it both with the story (a woman's dying mother claims she was the inspiration for characters in the novels of Philip Roth, John Irving, and others), and the music less easily accessible than the first two. Honestly, if I hadn't read my program first, I would have thought this was the LaChiusa musical, because this was the sort of musical I would have more expected from him... a bit more cold and intellectual, with less instantly pleasant melodies. I mean, this one was fine - it has a nice twist ending, and Barbara Walsh did a fine job, but especially after the first two, I just wasn't all that thrilled.
I noticed two people left after the first musical (I think they were just there because there were Victoria Clark fans), and one after the second (he seemed to be having problems with his hearing aid). I will say I felt a bit like the first musical was so fcomplete that if that had been the whole show, I would have been able to leave satisfied. I suppose I would have been happier if the order was shuffled, with my least favorite either first and second, I would have been able to leave a bit happier. That said, two out of three ain't bad - and especially at a second preview, meaning there's always room for the third to improve should the writers see fit - and I certainly happier sitting through this hour and forty-five minutes of musical theatre than most anything new and musical I saw on or off Broadway last season. This runs through May 30th at the Zipper Factory, and tickets are only twenty bucks, so I'd say these are well worth bothering with, should you have the time and/or interest.
And now I've gone on WAY longer than I intended to. So good night.
