Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The late Michael Friedman’s lovely, mature score is the highlight of UNKNOWN SOLDIER

• By drediman
• March 10, 2020
• No Comments

Kerstin Anderson and company in Michael Friedman and Daniel Goldstein’s “Unknown Soldier” at Playwrights Horizons. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Last night, Michael Friedman and Daniel Goldstein’s new musical Unknown Soldier opened Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons. For those of you who don’t know, Michael Friedman – a musical theater composer and lyricist who was much loved and respected in the theater community – tragically passed away from AIDS-related complications in 2017. Unknown Soldier, which tells the story of a woman trying to uncover the mysterious relationship between her grandmother and a World War I veteran, was one of the few unfinished projects he left behind. In many ways, this production feels somewhat like a living memorial to Mr. Friedman.

First and foremost, the late Mr. Friedman has written a lovely score for the show. It’s a mature composition that’s less overtly “musical comedy” than some of the work he’s created in the past. Indeed, rather than discrete musical numbers, the composer has written something that approaches a tone poem. There’s a unity to his work, which is comprised of recitative-like passages out of which arise amusing turn-of-the-century pastiche numbers, as well as soaring, beacon-like melodies. As always, his uniquely conversational way with words has a way of gently swaying listeners into the characters’ world. Mr. Goldstein’s book, however, is serviceable if a little on the inconsequential side.

Despite director Trip Cullman’s oddly cold production (there is some excellent video design work by Lucy Mackinnon, however), I was still moved by the experience of watching Unknown Soldier. Maybe it’s because the show’s themes of memory and loss can too easily be associated with the aforementioned loss of a superior talent and human being. The company is led by Broadway’s Margo Seibert and Erik Lochtefeld, who give sensitive dramatic and vocal performances as the musical’s amateur sleuths. The rest of the cast, which include a silken-voiced Kerstin Anderson and the legendary Estelle Parsons in a minor but feistily memorable turn (both play the character of the grandmother, young and old), do the memory of Mr. Friedman proud.

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UNKNOWN SOLDIER
Off-Broadway, Musical
Playwrights Horizons
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through March 29