High Fidelity: The Shop Around The Corner

The 13^th performance of High Fidelity, also being the press performance I attended, wound up being the show's final night on Broadway.  A pity.  I much prefer reviewing enjoyable musicals than eulogizing them. 

And High Fidelity really wasn't a bad little show.  It just, as Linus van Pelt might say, needed a little love.  (Meaning a firmer main romantic plot.)  Still, it was good old-fashioned meat and potatoes musical comedy.  The jokes were frequent and funny, the songs were tuneful, clever and well staged and the performances were sharp and energetic.  There have been years when shows of High Fidelity's quality have been nominated for the Best Musical Tony (Skyscraper, How Now Dow Jones) and some have even won (Redhead, anyone?).  Even today a musical like High Fidelity, if it opened late in a not especially notable season, might bring home an award or two and make it through the summer.  But these days of ticket prices that are at least ten times that of going to a movie demand that Broadway musicals be memorable events, leaving little room for an unremarkable show that nevertheless has sufficient charms to provide a fun evening out. 

Based on a book I never read and a movie I didn't see, I went into High Fidelity knowing little more than it being about a bunch of guys working in an independent record shop who like to create "Top 5" lists.  For these proudly snobbish music lovers, the shop is a safe haven where they can be among others who speak their language (Every try having an in depth discussion about theatre composers with normal people?) and share a mutual distain for mainstream taste.  ("If you hate mass market / Bring your ass and park it.") 

The main problem with David Lindsay-Abaire's gag-filled book ("He has acute angina" / "He better have a cute angina because his legs are disgusting.") is that there's little to care about in the story concerning shop owner Rob (Will Chase) and his attempts to win back his girlfriend Laura (Jenn Colella) after he screws things up by, ya know, acting like a guy.  Rob has trouble dealing with his relationship baggage, as exemplified by a chorus of ladies representing his "Top 5 Desert Island Breakups," but it's hard to feel the guy's pain when the first act curtain has him taking home hot acoustic guitar singer/songwriter Marie (Emily Swallow), whose claim to fame is that she used to sleep with Lyle Lovett. 

Tom Kitt's music is buoyant, versatile and catchy as all hell, but having rock music elitists in an independent record shop singing in the style of Broadway rock is a little like having lovers of Philip Glass minimalism expressing themselves through Jerry Herman tunes.  Amanda Green's lyrics certainly sound like they were written by someone who grew up listening to the work of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, with their flippant twists and unexpected rhymes.  ("I can't believe how much my life has improved. / I'm sleeping with a rock star. / Well, a rock star once removed.")  Okay, so maybe her father and his partner never wrote a lyric about pissing on someone's grave but the image was perfectly in character. 

Will Chase is a fine Broadway performer in search of a hit.  After being one of the few things in last season's Lennon that most people seemed to like, this time around he got a full production centered around him that plays perfectly to his nice-guy leading man easy-going charm.  Jenn Colella is also a charismatic performer with her sexy rock vocals contrasting with warm vulnerability, but her role was little more than "the girl."  There were plenty of entertaining turns in the supporting cast, including Jeb Brown as Ian, Laura's guru-following, tofu-eating new beau, Swallow as the tragically hip singer, belty-voiced Rachel Stern as Rob and Laura's gal pal and Jay Klaitz, Christian Anderson, Jon Patrick Walker and Kirsten Wyatt as the geeky denizens of Rob's record shop.  Walker also juiced up the evening with a cameo fantasy number as Bruce Springsteen. 

Director Walter Bobbie and choreographer Christopher Gattelli had the show spiritedly running on full kinetic blast, especially with the help of Anna Louizos terrific set, which was nearly a character in itself as it comically shifted from Rob's LP-dominated apartment to Ian's tranquil bedroom to the grungy glory of the record store. 

With a little luck, and maybe an original cast album, High Fidelity may escape the fate of being regulated as a footnote to the 2006-07 Broadway season.  It might even become a popular choice for college theatre productions.  It certainly was a heck of a lot more fun than a lot of shows that managed to hang in there for 14 performances. 

Photos by Joan Marcus:  Top:  Will Chase and Jenn Colella

Center:  Jay Klaitz, Will Chase and Christian Anderson

Bottom:  Jenn Colella