High Fidelity Comes In With Nothing But Static

Route 66 premiered the rehabbed Jalopy, High Fidelity, last night at Pipers Alley.  However, when a show only lasts fourteen performances in its Broadway Debut, it might just be worth it to let sleeping dogs lie.  Based on the 1995 Nick Hornby novel and the 2000 John Cusack film, High Fidelity introduces us to Rob, a record-store owner with the emotional maturity of a child and takes us on his journey to get the love of his life, Laura, back and maybe just grow the heck up.     

Other than its Broadway "run", this is probably the biggest production of High Fidelity to date.  I have to say the plot holds water.  It spoke to me as that girl who's been with that guy, who's well over the age of 29 and still thinks the world revolves around him and you're just living in it.  However, this perspective audience is never captured.  High Fidelity, as a musical, winds up degenerating into a male pity-fest and leaves the audience caring about no one.

I give this production credit for attempting to fix some of the problems of the Broadway run.  The rehabbed space plays nicely as an indie rock club, giving the show a more intimate feel. I also give credit to Diana Lawrence and Michael Mahler for taking a score of pretty uninteresting tunes and making it sound decent.   I also liked the idea of moving the plot out of New York. For those of you who sneezed and missed its Broadway run, Rob was from Brooklyn, where the city actually over powered the story.  However, I do disagree with bringing the story back to Chicago (so identified with the 2000 film).  It locked most of this current cast into playing a bland homage to the actors from the film. 

There were a few acting moments worth commenting about in this show.  They include Michael Mahler, as Dick.  His rendition of It's no problem, gave some nice insight on the dynamic of his friendship with some pretty unlikeable characters. Another standout was TMPMITW, played by Derek Hasenstab, who brought the only element of fun to this show, and finally there was Dana Tretta, as Liz.  Her flip out when she learns the true reason why Rob and Laura split, although the comic high point of the night, was probably some of the most realistic acting seen to that point.  We should all have a friend like Liz to have our backs.

I dig any artistic risk, where the artist truly believes in their vision, whether it's commercially viable or not, so I understand trying to revive this commercial failure.  However, I also think the word "Cult Classic" is bandied about too much. This is not a "Cult Classic".  High Fidelity just misses the mark on enough levels that no amount of fine tuning will get it right. 

 

 

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