Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Prospect Theater Company’s hopeful new musical revue NOTES FROM NOW is already starting to feel like a time capsule

• By drediman
• March 12, 2022
• No Comments

Last night, Prospect Theater Company’s Notes from Now: Songs of Resilience & Renewal opened Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters. The new musical revue features seventeen new songs from an army of up-and-coming musical theater writers (plus one rather established one). The topic du jour is the anxieties of living right here, right now – largely as it relates to life as affected by the pandemic, in addition to larger issues of the day like global warming and society’s recent series of reckonings (particularly with regards to our country’s race problems).

Notes from Now calls to mind the kind of musical revue that used to be more prevalent Off-Broadway but is now a relative rarity (think Maltby & Shire’s Starting Here, Starting Now and Closer Than Ever, as well as Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World). Although there are quite a few of cooks in the kitchen, the songs all tend to gravitate towards a similarly manipulative style somewhere between the the musical language of Pasek & Paul (Dear Evan Hansen) and Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, Wicked) – in fact, Mr. Schwartz actually penned the show’s finale “Bloom” – which lends a certain generic sameness to the evening. Nevertheless, the songs are well produced and richly orchestrated and sound fantastic under music director Sean Peter Forte and his wonderful six-piece band. Despite my slight reservations, there are some definite highlights, specifically a trio of songs late in the show – the dramatically astute “Mount Beacon” by Ryan Scott, the post-pandemic love letter to live musical theater “Coming Back to You” by Peter Mills, and the pull-on-your-heartstrings 11 o’clock number “A Song for Now” by Douglas Lyons and Ethan Pakchar. Collectively, these songs form a tapestry depicting hope triumphing over life’s many struggles. Yet despite this uplifting sentiment, I can’t help shaking the feeling that the piece is already starting to feel like a time capsule.

The production has been directed and choreographed by Billy Bustamente, who gives the show energizing forward momentum, all the while painting a series of distinct stage pictures (made possible by Rik Rakkulchon’s modular set, which is constantly reconfigured over the course of the evening). The show features a diverse, hard-working cast of eight. Most have sweet, youthful voices that shine (thanks largely to Ben Scheff’s meticulous sound design). I especially applaud the idiosyncratic vocal and dramatic punch that the veterans Judy McLane (Mamma Mia!) and Josh Lamon (The Prom) bring to the show. Together, the cast works together beautifully as a true ensemble, handily navigating the work’s breathless onslaught of musical short stories.

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NOTES FROM NOW: SONGS OF RESILIENCE & RENEWAL
Off-Broadway, Musical
Prospect Theater Company at 59E59 Theaters
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through March 20