BWW Reviews: HEARTBREAK, USA Lacks Heart

HEARTBREAK, USA is the ballad of Missy and Jerry, long-time sweethearts who find themselves at the end of the relationship road. Missy leaves, looking to her friends, Casey and Lizzie, for much needed support. But Jerry stubbornly stays exactly where Missy left him, vowing to remain on his porch until she comes back, kept company by the occasional visits of his friends, Ricky and Trip, and frequent visits by the local pizza delivery guy.

Produced by Standing Room Only Productions, the new musical by Michael Weems (book and lyrics) and Timothy Boaz (music) is ostensibly the story of six friends (and a pizza guy) navigating life, love, and their lowered expectations in small town America.

But unfortunately, HEARTBREAK, USA is flawed, and it starts with the book by Michael Weems. Meandering and repetitive, the book offers little for its characters to do, let alone a reason why - why the characters make the choices they make and why the audience should care. Despite the show's assertion that people relate to their misery, the characters are thinly drawn and kind of unlikeable. Here in HEARTBREAK, USA, a friend is a woman who sleeps with your ex and love is a man who calls you a bitch to your face.

Weems' lyrics are also trite and cliched ("You'll never know until you try" sing the cast in "Going Going Gone") and Timothy Boaz's music is derivative, a generic blend of pop country show tunes that quickly start to sound the same. The lone stand-out, "Fort Heartache," is also the song most true to its country roots. As musical director, Boaz coaches a hell of a performance from Jeffrey Taylor, who sings the song with an aching sincerity and twang. Unfortunately, many of the other vocal performances lacked nuance and variety.

Director Vance Johnson relies on leads Jeffrey Taylor and Chelsea Lerner to do much of the heavy lifting and their efforts are admirable. As Jerry, the man who can't be moved, Taylor delivers the strongest performance of the night, shining through an ever-increasing number of empty beer cans and pizza boxes. As Missy, Lerner is left mostly to wander aimlessly from scene to scene, as indecisive as Jerry is stubborn. But despite never learning why Jerry is so reluctant to let go, or the root of Missy's second-guessing, Taylor and Lerner both endow their characters with earnestness and heart.

Both are clearly strong vocalists, but unfortunately much of Lerner's performance in the first act was lost, drowned out by the band and various sound issues. It's not until "Dreamed Too Big" in the second act that Lerner's sweet vocals and fantastically controlled vibrato were fully on display.

Little time is spent developing the supporting characters played by Kelley Peters (Casey), Brian Chambers (Ricky), Derrien Kellum (Lizzie), and Steven Olivier (Trip). Each turn in a solid performance, but they are consistently undercut by a lack of character motivation and uneven storytelling. The relationship between Peters and Chambers is never established as loving, as much as whiny and manipulative. Trip hardly comes off as a lothario, and Lizzie's actions are baffling. By the end, relationships feel thrown together with little thought because, well, everyone needs to be paired off and sometimes there's no one else left.

A quick yet inexplicable detour to a male strip club introduces us to Buck, played by Tom Stell. As the proprietor of Loggerheads, Stell momentarily revives the show in gold hotpants and pasties. The laughs are cheap, but more than welcome as he launches into "Dip, Zip, Strip" (HEARTBREAK, USA's answer to LEGALLY BLONDE's "Bend and Snap"). Bryan Kaplum as Pizza Guy, and Buck's future boss through a bizarre twist, serves as a link between the men and the women. Kaplum is the everyman in this piece, overlooked by those around him, but he gets his big moment in "Slice of Life."

Ultimately, HEARTBREAK, USA is little more than an uninspired, shallow look at relationships.

HEARTBREAK, U.S.A. runs through Saturday, May 30, 2015 at Obsidian Art Space, 3522 White Oak Dr. Tickets are available here.

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