Down in the Holler!

When is a cabaret not a cabaret?

When it's something else.

That's what happened at Barrington Stage 2 this afternoon: something else. It was listed as 'A Cabaret from the Musical Theatre Lab' and it was more lab than musical. It is called Surviving the Avalanche and had lots of sound effects of avalanches and rock and ice crashing. That part, at least, was authentic. The music was by Vadim Feichtner and the lyrics by Jeremy Desmon. The performers were Miguel Cervantes. Andrew Kober, Dana Steingold, and Cassie Wooley.

According to Wikipedia, a cabaret is a musical entertainment featuring song, dance, theatre usually held in a restaurant or bar. This performance included a free glass of wine, so maybe that was an attempt to make you think you were in a bar. There was no dancing and not much theatre.

The lyrics seemed to be 'Stream of Conciousness' writing that Mr. Feichter tried to set to music. Say Virginia Woolf met Stephen Sondheim. You should be so lucky.

It sounded to me like an autobiographical rant about a life spent under an avalanche of problems, all of which could be solved by singing. That didn't happen. It was tiresome to hear these long, tedious sentences painfully set to a wandering melody that you certainly did not leave the theatre whistling.

All four singers have what could be fair show-biz voices if they would stop feeling the need to scream and shout when holding a microphone two inches from their lips. Hence the title of this post. There is singing and then there is hollering.

Every musical I have heard that has come out of the Musical Theatre Lab sounds alike, no matter who is the composer and who the librettist. Most of the participants work with William Finn at NYU and are obviously influenced by his work. This is not necessarily a good thing.

I am probably just not in the swing of things when it comes to present day musical theatre, but if this is the trend, I'll pass.

Dear Julie Boyd, your lab needs some new ideas.