Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The new musical FLYING OVER SUNSET is a curiosity that’s often visually and musically ravishing

• By drediman
• January 4, 2022
• No Comments

I recently had a chance to catch Lincoln Center Theater’s production of Flying Over Sunset, which is currently playing on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre for a limited run through February 6. If anything, the new musical is a curiosity, and a fascinating one at that. Created by the accomplished team of James Lapine (book and direction), Tom Kitt (music), and Michael Korie (lyrics), the piece – which is set in 1950s Hollywood – fleshes out the the real life meeting between Cary Grant, Clare Boothe Luce and Aldous Huxley, during which they experiment with LSD (i.e., acid) (!).

If not wholly satisfying, Flying Over Sunset nonetheless beguiles from its premise to its execution. The score is a far cry from Mr. Kitt’s rock-tinged compositions for Next to Normal and If/Then, owing more to the relatively subdued work of Mr. Korie’s previous musicals (i.e., Grey Gardens). Indeed, upon first listen, their score comes across as pleasant period pastiche, but closer inspection reveals a work that often flowers in ravishing and unforeseen ways, as dictated by the characters’ hallucinations. The book by Mr. Lapine (who most notably collaborated with the late Stephen Sondheim on Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods) is similarly organic, unfolding with patience and without the predictable contrivances of your typical musical. This means that the show frequently feels like a play with music (the characters only sing when they’re high), meandering in directions that are psychologically astute and stumbling across revelations at random as opposed to telegraphing them.

Mr. Lapine’s production is scaled monumentally so as to fill the mammoth dimensions of the Beaumont’s thrust stage. For the musical’s breathtaking drug-induced musical sequences, the director (with considerable help from his crack design team, pun intended) often gives the impression that the characters are floating in or flying over the vast expanses of the human psyche. Also contributing to the production’s unconventional vocabulary is Michelle Dorrance’s tap-driven choreography, which lends a spectral, haunted quality to the proceedings. Overall, the performances are excellent. Although Harry Hadden-Paton (Aldous Huxley) and Tony Yazbeck (Cary Grant) give thoroughly fleshed-out performances, it’s Carmen Cusack’s droll, sophisticated, and lusciously-voiced portrayal of Clare Boothe Luce that comes across most compellingly.

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FLYING OVER SUNSET
Broadway, Musical
Vivian Beaumont Theatre / Lincoln Center Theater
2 hours, 40 minutes (with one intermission)
Through February 6