Review: In Exhilarating and Moving BANDSTAND, War Veterans Use Music To Express What They Can't Put Into Words

As they sit in darkness, the first thing audience members hear is the sound of distant explosions. They come with an erratic frequency, edging frighteningly closer with each blast. But gradually, the sound becomes more rhythmic, adapting a fierce pulse until what we're hearing is a drum set beating out a swing tempo.

And that, in a nutshell, is what the exhilarating, adventurous and immensely moving new musical Bandstand is all about. How music can be used to express emotions too horrific and painful to put into words.

Richard Oberacker (book, music and lyrics) and Robert Taylor (book and lyrics), have crafted an original musical that seriously deals with issues concerning World War II's returning veterans and military widows, including the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder, that's as toe-tapping entertaining as it is poignant.

The pounding rhythms of 1940s dance music (kudos to orchestrators Bill Elliott and Greg Anthony Rassen) echo the unspeakable experiences of returning soldiers. With the battles against the enemy over, a group of young men fight the battle against their memories by creating music that defiantly insists on being joyous.

"It'll be just like it was before," a welcoming America sings to its returning soldiers as they arrive from victory. For Donny Novitski (a thrilling star performance by Corey Cott), that would mean returning to playing piano at Cleveland nightclubs until his dreams of being a successful singer/songwriter come true.

But soon Donny realizes that younger men who didn't serve have taken over his regular gigs. Not one to take no for an answer, Donny gets an idea when NBC radio announces a nationwide talent search for a band playing a new song honoring the troops. The winners will be cast in a big Hollywood film that will feature their song, so Donny organizes a sextet composed entirely of World War II veterans, and their music will be enhanced by the authenticity of them having been there.

Like Cott at piano, the six actors playing the musical vets all play their own instruments. The swing of their hot licks is all the more infectious because the writing and acting is perfectly on pitch.

Joe Carroll's Johnny, the drummer, had three operations to treat head wounds, leaving him mentally slow. Bassist Davy (Brandon J. Ellis) took part in the liberation of Dachau and drinks to forget what he saw in the concentration camp. Trombonist Wayne (Geoff Packard), trumpeter Nick (Alex Bender) and sax player Jimmy (James Nathan Hopkins) are also haunted by unspeakable memories. The musical includes moments when we see evidence of the emotional damage, but also shows the boys as a supportive group that understands and accepts one another when the world around them doesn't.

Donny suffers from guilt because of the circumstances surrounding how his best buddy in the army, a drummer nicknamed Rubbers, was killed. He promised Rubbers to check in with his wife if anything happened to him, and when he meets Julia (Laura Osnes) they form an immediate bond out of their mutual love for the fallen hero.

After hearing her sing as a church choir soloist, Donny convinces Julia to join the band, and when she shares a journal of poems she's written to deal with her pain, he takes the liberty of setting some of them to music, giving the group a new, very meaningful playlist that includes a crushing ballad about a woman wanting to find love again after her husband is killed overseas and a powerful tribute to the men who returned from battle with lingering issues.

Although the plot involves their effort to win the contest, the band members are more concerned with the lack of common respect they receive along the way from those who weren't there.

This drive for respect is most apparent in Donny, and Cott's gritty charisma, matching his soaring vocals and jaunty dance skills, combine for a dynamic portrait of a flawed man who is heroic in his effort to do right by others.

Osnes tugs at the heart as a wounded soul who finds the freedom to express herself through music. She tears into the musical's climactic song, "Welcome Home," Julia's tribute to her new friends with a lyric that uses raw terms to describe her view of their effort to fight the pain. Beth Leavel offers a warmly comic turn as Julia's selflessly supportive mother.

BANDSTAND has been significantly trimmed and improved since its promising run at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse last year. Director/choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler's slam-bang production, continually on the move, ingeniously uses his ensemble to not only express the new freedoms post-war Americans felt with the latest dance crazes, but also to symbolize the internal struggle of its heroic main characters. Dancers are seen tormenting the veterans with hard taps and sometimes draping their weight upon them. It's only when the boys are playing their music that they can let go of these emotional burdens.

While this civilian reviewer cannot begin to imagine what the characters depicted in BANDSTAND are going through, it is undoubtedly a sincere and respectful effort to honor war veterans, utilizing the unique storytelling capabilities of American musical theatre.

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