Can four chairs & a piano make a Broadway musical?! - [title of show] at Haddonfield Plays & Players
by Stephen T. Kreal
I had the pleasure of seeing [title of show] On Friday, June 16th, 2023. The performance was part of Haddonfield Plays and Players special programming. The play was directed by Brian Keith Herrick. [title of show] was written by Jeff Bowen (music & lyrics) and Hunter Bell (book). [title of show] whimsically follows the challenges of writing and creating a musical in a relatively short period of time. The play won an Obie Award in 2006 and was nominated for several others.
The highly talented cast consisted of Marissa Wolf (Susan), Jerrod Ganesh (Jeff), Eileen Ashley (Heidi), Al Ro (Hunter), and Chris Weed (Larry…who was the pianist, but also interacted with the actors). The story centers around two buddies who are trying to write a musical for a submission to a play festival that is a mere three weeks away. They recruit their two friends to help out. The witty, clever dialogue is rapid-fire, realistic and very funny. The stage chemistry among and between the actors was excellent.
The friendship between Hunter (Al Ro) and Jeff (Jerrod Ganesh) was brilliantly portrayed, as there were many ups and downs in the process of writing, re-writing, and submitting (and, of course) waiting to hear. The actors effortlessly portrayed the tension of these moments.
Eileen Ashley (Heidi) gave an inspired performance with ceaseless energy, her vocal performance was absolutely amazing. Her facial expressions expertly conveyed her character’s emotions.
Marissa Wolf (Susan) played a character on the brink of giving up on theater. Susan frequently referenced her mundane, boring, full-time job. Ms. Wolf did an amazing performance of showing how her character was walking the “razor’s edge” between giving up and giving in, and yet clinging to that thin sliver of hope that acting will work out.
The simple set was colorful and spacious, a younger person’s apartment in New York City. The set was repurposed from HPP’s last production. Mr. Herrcik did a masterful job of painting and redesigning a set that was not specifically built for this production. That is not an easy task. There were four wheeled office chairs that, coincidentally (?) matched the four shirts the actors were wearing.
There was a good balance between set design, lighting, and costuming. The lighting design was highly effective in conveying the mood and tone of the scenes. The dialogue was interspersed with high-energy musical numbers, with piano accompaniment. At the risk of spoilers: the song “Monkeys and Playbills” was performed with a very effective montage of visual projections that highlighted the humorous lyrics. The song “Die, Vampire, Die” addressed the theme of self-doubt in a very funny way that people should relate to. The vocal talents of the four actors are superlative.
The dances were not overly elaborate, were well-choreographed by Lindsay Krier, and made good use of the space. The movement was lively and energetic. The scene transitions were a blackout stage with audio of recorded phone answering machine messages between the characters. These messages propelled the narrative of the story forward, in addition to being amusing.
Brian Herrick’s direction shows a clear vision of the script. The show is written to have no intermission, running about 90 minutes. I feel that an intermission would have been a benefit, as the run time was actually closer to 2 hours.
A recurring theme throughout the performance was: “Can four chairs and a piano make a Broadway musical”? The answer is yes! [title of show] was entertaining and fun. The audience was enthusiastic and fully engaged. At curtain call, the audience gave an enthusiastic and drawn-out applause and standing ovation.
[title of show] runs this weekend only until Sunday, June 18th. Tickets can be purchased at https://haddonfieldplaysandplayers.csstix.com/
