Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – A pair of beguiling original musicals open Off-Broadway: Dave Malloy’s THREE HOUSES and Zoe Sarnak’s THE LONELY FEW

• By drediman
• May 21, 2024
• No Comments

Last night, a pair of beguiling new musicals opened Off-Broadway, both of which distinguish themselves for being completely original (i.e., not based on pre-existing books, films, albums, etc.). As per usual, read on for my thoughts on them.

THREE HOUSES
Signature Theatre Company
Through June 9

Certainly the more abstract of the two is Three Houses (RECOMMENDED) by Dave Malloy (perhaps best known for penning The Great Comet). Presented by Signature Theatre Company, the piece unfolds in a sort of a Beckettian post-pandemic bar that serves up slightly menacing open mic opportunities for its patrons. Over the course of the evening, three participants take the spotlight, recounting their lockdown experiences via what can best be described as karaoke short stories. Lasting approximately 30 minutes a pop, their respective accounts cover a gamut of themes from loneliness to self-discovery, invariably taking on a Grimm’s Fairy Tale-like quality as they go down harrowing psychological rabbit holes. For each of these phantasmagorical excavations, Malloy has written pungent, stream-of-conscience material that ramble, restlessly, towards each of the character’s point of reckoning. Suffice to say, his eclectic, artful score — Malloy is at home with both electronica and classical music — matches the hallucinatory and searching cadence of each these journeys. Despite the disparate settings of the lockdown vignettes (Latvia, New Mexico, New York), all three — performed with disarming abandon by the terrific trio of J.D. Mollison, Margo Seibert, and Mia Pak — are bizarrely tied together by common elements (e.g., each retreat the pandemic to face lockdown alone, each are haunted by the ghosts of their grandparents, etc.). Three Houses has been directed by Annie Tippe, who gives the piece an unsettled purgatorial mood bordering on apocalyptic. Rounding out the cast are Scott Strangland, Henry Stram, and Ching Valdes-Aran, all of whom give deliciously idiosyncratic performances.

THE LONELY FEW
MCC Theater
Through June 2

Then just a few blocks north of the Signature, you’ll find MCC Theater’s production of The Lonely Few (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) by Rachel Bonds and Zoe Sarnak (the musical was previously seen last year at LA’s Geffen Playhouse). Set largely in Middle America against the backdrop of the scrappy live music scene, the piece chronicles the aching queer love story between two women — both talented rockers — who must navigate each of their personal lives to make things work between them. Although there’s nothing particularly eye-catching about the plot, I commend the eloquent work by the musical’s creators — particularly the grounded book by Bonds (who earlier this season penned the haunting play Jonah for Roundabout) — for finding the human pulse coursing through the story. The many-splendored score by Sarnak — an ascending talent to watch out for — gives audiences tons of heart and an authentic rock sound, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a number of popular standards make their way out of the score. The production has been co-directed by Trip Cullman and Ellenore Scott, who have given The Lonely Few an environmental staging that embraces the audiences, making effective use of the extremely wide Newman Mills Theater stage. The piece is centered by a stunningly sung and acted performance by Laurie Patten, who armed with searing vocals and uncommon sensitivity in her acting, proves that her Tony win for Jagged Little Pill was no fluke. As her love interest, the big-voiced Taylor Iman Jones is the epitome of sexy cool. The rest of the superb cast deliver finely etched performances, particularly Damon Daunno in an unexpected, quietly devastating supporting turn.