Review: IN TRANSIT Sets New York Stories To Glorious A Cappella Vocals

When the a cappella musical In Transit played Off-Broadway in 2010, most musical theatre fans would identify "Let It Go" as composer/lyricist David Yazbek's finale song for musical version of THE FULL MONTY.

Since then, those three words have found an additional home as the title of an Oscar-winning song written by wife and husband team Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, soon to be sung on Broadway eight times a week (plus, we can assume, reprises) in the upcoming stage adaptation of FROZEN.

But first Broadway audiences can take an enjoyable ride alongside a collection of young New Yorkers trying to carve out their personal corner of Gotham, via the sunny new musical co-penned by Anderson-Lopez, James-Allen Ford, Russ Kaplan and Sara Wordsworth.

As the title suggests, the featured mode of transportation is the New York City subway system. The Circle In The Square audience forms an oblong horseshoe around Donyale Werle's two-tiered set, which has a top level representing the turnstile area of Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue stop and a bottom with platform areas sandwiching a treadmill on which arrives orange and yellow bucket seats that can represent incoming trains or any other location needed.

The several plots, rather typical New York stories of lives in transit, are linked together by coincidental relationships that are gradually introduced the audience.

Jane (Margo Seibert) is a star office temp who is up for a Broadway role that could change her life. Nate (James Snyder) is trying to pull his life back together after a dumb mistake got him fired from his high-powered finance position.

Trent (Justin Guarini) and Steven (Telly Leung) plan to get married but the former has yet to inform his evangelical mother living in Texas that he's gay. (Moya Angela plays Trent's mom and one of Jane's co-workers, but her standout comic moments come as an unsympathetic MTA clerk.)

Ali (Erin Mackey) relocated from Seattle to be with a guy who just dumped her, and she's now wondering if a life in New York is what she wants.

Spreading streetwise wisdom and vocal rhythms while passengers wait for their trains is a beatbox artist (Chesney Snow and Steven "HeaveN" Cantor alternate in the role) who is the grounding force behind the evening's a cappella score. We're informed at the outset that every sound heard is created by the voices of the eleven-member company and Deke Sharon's vibrant and evocative vocal arrangements deserve star billing. The songs themselves are an appealing collection of catchy pop numbers, rap and Latin rhythms, staged with spirited bounce by director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall.

IN TRANSIT's view of the city teeters between romanticized and sanitized. Everyday annoyances like trains that never arrive, loudspeaker announcements that can't be understood and running into rats who are helping themselves to discarded pizza slices are played for laughs of recognition. Happy endings come to those who work for them and the pulse of Gotham is a multicultural mix that sounds glorious as sung by the talented company.

Leave your cynicism on the other side of the turnstile and swipe yourself in.