BWW Reviews: Emerson Theater Collaborative Invests in THE BIG BANK

The Big Bank
Book & Lyrics by Daniel Seligmann
Music & Lyrics by Jacob Seligmann
Directed by Theresa Broach
Emerson Theater Collaborative at the First United Methodist Church in Mystic, CT through July 31
www.emersontheatercollaborative.org

Investing in a new musical is a gamble.  One puts money down on a musical generally realizing it is highly unlikely that you will see a return on your investment.  This is a surprising risk in today's economy, even in wealthy Mystic, CT,  which is downwind of two of the world's largest casinos.  With the musical The Big Bank, the risk-taking Emerson Theater Collaborative has bankrolled a big "new" musical comedy.  The ironic quotes are intentional as The Big Bank was written in 1995 and is finally being premiered in 2011.  Little could its creators, brothers Jacob and Daniel Seligmann, know how timely a musical about money-hungry mortgage lenders and dream-crushing foreclosures would be when the show finally hit the boards (or the linoleum of the First United Methodist Church's Fellowship Hall, as it were).

So, does Emerson Theater Collaborative's investment in The Big Bank yield record dividends or should they prepare to lose their shirts?  The best way to proceed is to tally up the production's assets and liabilities. 

ASSET:  A big, eager-to-please cast.  Finding a theater company willing to put 16 performers on stage (or in a church basement) is a risk that pays off for the most part.  The romantic leads, Paul James Lang as the conflicted banker Stuart Stevens and Diane Foster as Iris Jablonski, are sweet and winsome in their roles.  Both sing beautifully and render heartfelt performances.  Another standout is young Morgan Heller in the role of Parsley Underwood (a role alternated with Mackenzie Ackley).  This fourth-grader handles her very complicated lines well and gets the biggest laughs of the night playing a deceitful little old lady in a television commercial promoting the titular bank. 

LIABILITY:   The Big Bank is essentially a big farce about the collision of high finance and how it can destroy the lives of the proletariat, to quote a term used in the household of the publisher of "Marxism and Conservation" Magazine, Clarence Underwood.  Underwood, portrayed by Tim Reilly, is a paranoid, PETA-loving, communist, George Bush-hating lefty who lives in his office/home with his daughter, the aforementioned Parsley.   When the bank attempts to foreclose on his property, he plans to blow up the bank (or as he puts it, "The Big Bank is going to seem like the Big Bang.").  On the other end of the socio-political spectrum is the tightfisted, heartless CEO of The Big Bank, simply known as The Boss.  Portrayed by Bob Olson, The Boss practically salivates at the prospect of dispossessing his clients.  Broadly and hammily played for laughs, these two parts are meant to be comic relief.  Unfortunately, with current events being what they are, it makes for a somewhat uncomfortable experience to see much humor in potential homelessness or acts of terrorism.  Granted, the authors could not have known how prescient their piece would be in 2011 when written sixteen years ago, but it still tempers the humor.

ASSET:  There are many wonderful songs  in the score, including "In My Room," "Calm Company of Rain," "Cupid Has Impeccable Aim," and "Montague Street."  Many modern musicals aim for Sondheim and end up in some tuneless no-man's-land.   The Seligmanns show they have a way with melody and clever lyrics, especially on the midtempo numbers and ballads.  A particular favorite was the penultimate Act I song "Are We In Love?," a duet for Foster and Lang.

LIABILITY:  There are many other songs in the score.  Jacob Seligmann's uptempo compositions show a difficulty in transitioning between time signatures.  This makes numbers like "We Repossess," "The Bridge Song" and "Life is a Loan" herky-jerky as they vacillate from verse to chorus and back again.  It's akin to being in a standard car with someone who is not exactly sure how to shift gears.  It is not that these songs are poorly written, but further work on the score may be required to make the songs seem more whole.  Some of The Seligmann's lyrics can be a little hokey (like the ballad "Forgotten Language"), while others can be wonderfully clever ("Everybody Loves a Surprise").  The number "Look at All the Creatures in the Zoo" was a bit too clever.  On a visit to the zoo, the bankers compare their lives to the lives of the caged animals.  While filled with insight and humor, it was not presented with irony and the bankers have heretofore not shown any dissatisfaction with their lot (Stuart excepted, who oddly joins the bankers for a song and dance in "Life is a Loan" after he has quit the Big Bank).

ASSET:  Many of the characters are well-defined and humorously written.  The timeliness of the subject matter kept one engaged and there was not a single boring moment in the piece itself.

LIABILITY:  Whether it was the audience or the performances, a goodly portion of the laugh lines simply did not land.  There are many funny lines in the show.  Farce is a delicate balance and ETC's The Big Bank has not quite hit the right comic pitch.  Some of this may be due to the long transitions between scenes that can suck the air out of a play.  The two major plot strands - the foreclosure of Underwood's home and the foreclosure of Iris's flower shop - do not merge in a satisfying way at the end of the play.  A last-minute love interest for Underwood is similarly underdeveloped (and quite frankly one feels a call to DCF might be more in order than a girlfriend for the eco-terrorist).

ASSET:  Emerson Theater Collaborative's thrifty production featured nice costuming by Vic Panciera, Alex McCune and Gail DeCoteau.  The buttoned-down bankers were spot-on and the turkey buzzard costume (best explained elsewhere) was fabulous.  The lighting design by Roy Borque was simple and effective.

LIABILITY:  The production featured an unwieldy set designed by Jeanette Drake that was well done in some instances (the Underwood's home and the flower shop) and less well done in others (the Big Bank itself).  Because of the cumbersome need to haul set pieces on and off stage, actors would have to wait for the set to be cleared before they could position themselves in the tight office area, leaving the band to vamp.  Several musical numbers were over-choreographed, particularly Iris's ballads that had her flitting and pirouetting around her tiny store.  At other points, the performers didn't seem comfortable with choreographer Christine Poland's dances.

ASSET:  Emerson Theater Collaborative continues to prove that it is a company willing to take risks on the market while much larger theatres would cower in fear at putting on a 16-person musical with a crack 3-piece instrumental ensemble.  Bravo to the company for continuing to support new work and unknown artists in a part of Connecticut that is fairly theatre-deprived.

So, when one tallies up the balance sheet, The Big Bank may not be entirely bankable yet, but is a worthwhile summer diversion.   One hopes, with further investment in the property, that the show will reap further dividends in the future (and one also hopes it is not another sixteen years before we see the Brothers Seligmann back on stage).  Although they may not have pulled off a Big Bank heist, ETC deserves kudos for putting up an ambitious effort for their first-ever musical.

Photo by Jack Ross.

 

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