Review Roundup: Atlantic Theater's FOUND Opens Off-Broadway

Atlantic Theater Company presents the first production of its 2014-2015 season - the world premiere new musical FOUND, directed by Lee Overtree, featuring a book by Tony Award nominee Hunter Bell ([title of show]) and Lee Overtree and original music and lyrics by Eli Bolin. FOUND officially opens tonight, October 14 for a limited, eight-week engagement through Sunday, November 9, 2014 Off Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company at the Linda Gross Theater (336 West 20th Street).

FOUND features a celebrated ensemble cast of ten including Christina Anthony, Nick Blaemire, Andrew Call, Daniel Everidge, Orville Mendoza, Betsy Morgan, Molly Pope,Danny Pudi, Sandy Rustin and Barrett Wilbert Weed.

FOUND is an original musical based on scores of surprising and eccentric discarded notes and letters that have been "found" in the real world by every-day people. Inspired by actual events, the show follows Davy (Blaemire) who, along with his two best friends, is lost and broke. When he finds a strangely revealing note on his windshield meant for someone else, it sparks an outlandish idea that finds him and his compatriots on a wild, comedic journey.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Charles Isherwood, The New York Times: After watching "Found," you may want to scurry home and incinerate the following: leftover to-do lists, sarcastic notes on the refrigerator demanding that spouse do dishes, quickly scribbled life plans, attempts at blank verse made after taking Ambien. Should you fail to do so, be warned that these bits of written detritus may not be safe from posterity, as this engaging oddball of a new musical attests...Literature, anthropology, sociology, whatever. These delightfully weird notes provide Davy with purpose, and the musical with its singular appeal...Davy's quandary isn't particularly enthralling. The book...meanders about haphazardly, and the will-he-or-won't-he plot doesn't engender much suspense. But the formulaic beats of the narrative are continually freshened by the intrusion of dispatches from the magazine.

Marilyn Stasio, Variety: Although there isn't a kitten or a puppy in sight, "Found" is so cute, it's almost too cute. Helmer Lee Overtree has been extremely clever in staging this quirky musical, which he co-wrote with Hunter Bell ("[title of show]") from discarded notes rescued and printed by Davy Rothbart in Found Magazine. What the helmer hasn't been is ruthless. Adorable as it is, this exhilarating show would have a better chance of attracting the eyeballs of regional presenters if it shed two members of a 10-body cast and cut about 20 minutes of lame jokes from the playing time.

Adam Feldman, Time Out NY: Nick Blaemire, sweet and bouncy as a gum ball, plays a fictionalized version of Davy; Barrett Wilbert Weed (in excellent voice) and Daniel Everidge are the decent-hearted roommates who help him follow his dream, and Betsy Morgan is the producer who tempts him to Hollywood. Six tip-top actors, including Community's Danny Pudi and the limber Andrew Call, play dozens of side characters and bump up the energy with choreography, by Monica Bill Barnes, that adorably evokes real people dancing...Especially in contrast with the spiky objets trouvés of Davy's magazine, the dialogue and plot can seem a bit pat, and too eager, especially in the first act, to ensure that the heroes seem nice. More jaggedness around the edges might give added dimension to the many right notes that Found already hits.

Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News: New musicals not based on movies are rare. And ones with the originality and infectious exuberance of "Found" are even more uncommon. The show is based on the Found magazines and books by Davy Rothbart, who saw discarded letters, to-do lists and other scraps of paper littering streets as windows into people's lives. These fragmented, out-of-context messages are cleverly woven into a sweetly compelling musical about discovering one's place in the world...Eli Bolin's lively and lovely songs -- a moody mix of acoustic-driven ballads and tunes with jazzier edges -- keep the action humming...Everyone in the ensemble gets a shot to stand out -- and does...The show's conceit does get stretched. Sometimes its tight focus slackens and the show becomes like a revue threaded together by a theme. Even so, "Found" is a surprising and satisfying find.

Rex Reed, New York Observer: ...the cleverness and joy in this show is the way the material has been collated and assembled into a collage of songs, dances and musical treats by a cast of ten spirited talents, headed by nerdy but very musically savvy Nick Blaemire (Godspell), who plays Davy and looks remarkably like him, too. There's a thin idea here, but exuberantly executed by the lively cast...Two hours plus intermission sometimes seems a bit too long to sustain interest in such varied material, but the 10 versatile cast members, accompanied by a six-man band and bounced all over the stage by Monica Bill Barnes' deceptively simple but effectively fresh choreography on 28 songs from "Stay Weird" to "Barf Bag Breakup" guarantees something that rings the bell will be found nightly by one and all at Found.

Thom Geier, Entertainment Weekly: Serendipity and missed connections are the stuff of many a musical comedy, and they're put to clever use in the fact-based chamber musical Found...It's too bad that the show's conceit isn't matched by the plot...What we get is an overlong, utterly predictable story...Found documents wallpaper the walls of David Korins' set at ATC's Linda Gross Theater, while others are projected there...The effect is often witty, and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, but the device also robs the story and characters of the element of surprise: When the subtext is projected onto the stage, after all, it just becomes text. Eli Bolin's score has a similar tossed-off quality, with pleasant but mostly forgettable pop tunes whose lyrical line must follow the rhythms of each found document. C+

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Photo Credit: Walter McBride