Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Young Jean Lee’s tuneful curiosity WE’RE GONNA DIE returns to New York in a slick new form

• By drediman
• February 28, 2020
• No Comments

Janelle McDermoth in Second Stage Theater’s production of “We’re Gonna Die” by Young Jean Lee, at the Tony Kiser Theater. Photo by Joan Marcus.

This week, Young Jean Lee’s We’re Gonna Die opened Off-Broadway at the Tony Kiser Theater courtesy of Second Stage Theater. The staging marks the return to New York of the tuneful curiosity, after having previously played the Public Theater and other venues across the country in a different form, which starred Ms. Lee herself as herself. The stage memoir endeavors to defy classification, straddling musical theater, cabaret, rock concert, and theatrical solo show. However, as much as it tries to brand itself as an elusive and idiosyncratic creation, the show, at least in my book, solidly falls under the category of musical, especially in the current enhanced staging.

Ms. Lee’s confessional text is an honest attempt to confront and assess some of her toughest life challenges to date, as well as document and share the life lessons she’s taken away from them. Her clear-eyed anecdotes and associated takeaways are strikingly universal, granting the brisk, hourlong piece an almost instant accessibility. For a work that explores some of our deepest human fears — loss, isolation, rejection, and (of course) mortality among them — We’re Gonna Die is oddly optimistic about our collective existential woes, at least musically. That the hook-driven songs, co-written by Ms. Lee and her band Future Wife, are so jarringly bright and melodically addictive counteracts most of the sting of the depressing realities laid bare, but they don’t quite eclipse the tough pill at the show’s core. It’s this contrasting sweet and sour flavor that makes the show such a stealthy piece of theater.

As mentioned, this next generation iteration of We’re Gonna Die is no longer quite the same show that it once was, despite there having been only limited modifications to the underlying material. Gone is the scrappy, stripped-down downtown aesthetic that I was first exposed to. In its place, avant-garde director/choreographer Raja Feather Kelly’s staging gives the piece a slick, stylish veneer (complete with an unnecessarily elaborate concluding dance break) that somewhat dulls the contrasting textures and some of the visceral impact of the work. Also, Ms. Lee no longer appears in the show, which further shifts the show’s tone from the original staging. In the playwright’s place is the voluptuous Janelle McDermoth, who is a vastly different kind of stage presence than the unassuming Ms. Lee. Nonetheless, Ms. McDermoth is compelling and convincing — even magnetic — throughout. That this little trickster of a show still works as well as it does is a testament to the strength of Ms. Lee’s text and songs and their unimpeachable universality.

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WE’RE GONNA DIE
Off-Broadway, Musical
Second Stage Theater / Tony Kiser Theater
1 hour, 5 minutes (without an intermission)
Through March 22