Actor Tanner Spears Critiques Changes Made To 'The Story Of My Life'

The Broadway musical "The Story Of My Life" ran less than a week on Broadway in the very economically bleak February of 2009, to the heartbreak of many who saw it and loved it in previews. The story of two childhood friends, it starred Will Chase and Malcolm Gets, and a cast album of the lovely, Sondheimy score was released not long after the show closed.

Now playing in Chicago is a revised production of the show, directed by its original director, the very capable Richard Maltby, Jr. The original authors, Neil Bartram (music and lyrics) and Brian Hill (book) have written some new material, and Chicago Muse, a new producing entity concentrating on new works, is presenting it at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theatre for the holiday season (early November through January 2, 2011).  

Eagle-eyed readers of BroadwayWorld.com know that, in September of 2009, what is believed to be the very first non-Equity production of this show anywhere (still in its original version, of course) played in Chicago's far northwest suburbs, a co-production of Bartlett High School and Introspect Theatre. One of the two student actors who made up the cast of that production, Tanner Spears, is now a freshman at DePaul University, studying music and drama.  

He saw the Chicago Muse production (starring New York actors Jack Noseworthy and Davis Duffield) on Friday night, November 19th, and I asked him to set down his thoughts for BroadwayWorld. I thought it important that there be a critique of the revisions to this work, by someone who knows the original script. Here are Mr. Spears's detailed and unedited impressions of the revised show, written by a young but very knowledgeable observer of the preceedings: 

FIRST AND FOREMOST I APOLOGIZE IF I RUIN ANY OF THE STORY

The Story of My Life, music and lyrics by Neil Bartram, book by Brian Hill, is the remembered journey of two male best friends. The show is in Thomas Weaver's (Jack Noseworthy), a bestselling author, mind (besides the very beginning and ending where is it just him*). His best friend, Alvin Kelby (Davis Duffield), is a quirky fellow that is constantly in his thoughts like a conscious that Thomas attempts to avoid. The lighting went with the story perfectly and the sound and band was great. I had no problem with the individual acting although at sometimes I could have sworn that Alvin had some type of disability- he was really odd sometimes! Noseworthy was clearly the stronger singer. The story is supposed be to about two best friends, but that friendship I did not see- it felt forced. There were times where they exchanged smiles and all, but Noseworth and Duffield were on the stage as actors, not friends. Being in the show before (I was Alvin) with one of my actual best friends, I believe, took this challenge away. Personally connected with each character itself (for example, I honestly do randomly say interesting facts like that of a butterfly or the infinite diversity of snowflakes), our friendship grew on stage and off. The rewrites end up harming, not helping this production.

Both characters are shown right away. Thomas wears a black suit with a purple shirt. Alvin is wearing a brown jacket, blue, plaid, button-up shirt with brown-green slacks and matching canvas shoes. Alvin also wears large glasses, which I personally would not have done seeing that glasses hide the face and, thus, loses emotion from the eyes. In past productions, Alvin is in all white or off shades. Now as Chicago Muse's costuming added to the personality of Alvin's character it took away from the fact that he really was not there anymore: everything and anything about Alvin is just supposed to be just a memory in the show.

This was also a problem about the books being colored. The first image that jumped in my head after seeing the set was Ollivander's wand shop from Harry Potter. Replace the books with wand cases and there you have it. This is a book store, should it not have shelves (not just a projected image of a shelf). Books instead are in high stacks of all colors. There are about ten smaller stacks on stage right and left that are fully white, but these are never used nor acknowledged. If it was Thomas' book store the colored books would make sense, but it is not. If they were going to use color they should have fully mixed in the white books, not separated them. The fact that the set and everything else was originally made to be white was not only due to the musical's vignettes of memories, but it was also for the audience to make it their own. If Chicago Muse put forth so much effort to say, "This is the Story of YOUR life," then why did they take away this idea of simplicity that gave so much freedom to the audience to imagine their own Alvin, their own bookstore, their own story.

The new song and few added lines were a distaste to me. The new song/lines in the beginning of the show was like an introduction to a middle schoolers English essay. At least they did not forget the thesis!... Here is the show and here is what Thomas is going to do. It was childlike and brought the audience out of the show rather than deeper into it. It was better to let Alvin appear towards the end of the opening number to let the audience understand that they are entering the memory of Thomas. The fact they both are there present is the reason why those weak new additions were added. You have to trust your audience and your acting ability to give what is necessary for the audience to understand. With the new additions, this trust was broken. New lines did not only change the staging, but also were contradictory. The changed line "Only a week ago, on Christmas Eve, Alvin stood in this very spot..." now changed to "[Only...eve], Thomas stood at this very podium." The scene goes on to play that Thomas is late and Alvin asked to hear his speech before he presents it to the waiting guests. Maybe it is just my mind, but if Thomas was already at the podium in front of the audience then he would NOT have been late and would already have been giving the speech or just about to. It just made no sense for Alvin to go up to the podium, interrupt him, give him a hug, tell him he was late, and then ask to hear the speech in front of everyone. The new lines before the song "Angels In the Snow" were meaningless, cliché, and unneeded. The audience [should] already understand Thomas' realization... that is why there is the song "I Didn't See Alvin." Then there were lines taken out that where there as rhetorical devices like repetition and foreshadowing. Like "I read somewhere that the human brain remembers absolutely everything, every moment, every detail,.. " This line is supposed to be repeated twice, once in the beginning and the end. Instead they took this line out at the beginning and left it in the end. That line connected the beginning and the end as well as added a little humor to the situation and established fact that Alvin was finally the one in control without saying it directly. The story was better left untouched. Neil Bartram and Brian Hill had this musical artistically written, but now took part of that away. There was no need to add lines to dumb the story down, maybe stage directions, but no lines. If anything Alvin Kelby and Thomas Weaver need to show us more, not tell us.

Being a detailed geared person I notice the little things. One of the lines tells us that Alvin always says "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings," yet every time the bell rings in the show, Alvin does not say that. There are also a few other lines where someone says they are doing something at the present moment... but they are not. If the line is "I am screwing in a light bulb," it would make sense to be screwing in a lightbulb, right? So, if your making a snow angel, last time I checked you do not just flop your ass down in the snow and lie there. Your hands and feet move up and down, in and out. I liked how they began to use the paper as snow balls to have a fight, at first, but then I remembered those pieces of paper are the memories. Crumpling them is sort of harsh, don't ya think?

The emotion throughout the whole production seemed never to completely get to where it should have been. The actors nailed their personalities, addEd Mannerisms, but never seemed to quite develop the friendship. I felt like there were parts when the actors played it safe and tried not to "overact." They kept their emotions on lockdown and below a certain level; however, is it not with our best friend that our emotions have no boundaries, that they are the ones where we feel like we do not have to constrain ourselves? It is because of this that with the ones whom we love we end up reaching epiphanies of both extremes. I was waiting for Alvin to finally blow up and for Thomas to finally break down, but this never happened, at least in this production. The most meaningful part of the whole story was absolutely thrown away: the kiss on the neck. I, even knowing it was coming, almost missed it. After a half-ass hug, Alvin sways his head and does not even kiss, but more like brushes his lips against Thomas neck and quickly turns away. Thomas then says his next line with no emotion- like this kiss is normal. Noseworthy does not act surprised, not confused, not weirded out, nothing. This whole kiss is then repeated later, but this time it is Thomas turn to show his "love" for Alvin. This kiss is better, at least definitely noticed, but still the hug was half-assed. Do you hug your best friend with ONE ARM to show them affection?!? That was the most disappointing part of the whole production. The audience should have felt somewhat uncomfortable and moved- they are [supposed to be] watching the deepest friendship one has in life and that should be awkward for audience to watch.

Being in the show before I clearly have my own interpretation of it. The show itself was a good production even though there seemed to be some contradictions, even in the rewrites. Honestly, I expected more from Tony Award Winning director Richard Maltby, Jr.. If you have not seen the show, it is a great show nonetheless. I would recommend the show itself, but I am not so sure about this particular production because I do not agree with the presentation and interpretation.

*After the rewrites Alvin was shown at the beginning as well. I found this to be more confusing and less meaningful. With these rewrites everything was in Thomas' mind, since dead Alvin was on stage seen with him the duration of the show.

Photos: Tanner Spears in the Bartlett High School/Introspect Theatre production of "The Story Of My Life," September 2009; Davis Duffield and Jack Noseworthy in the Chicago Muse production of "The Story Of My Life," November 2010.

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