Review: UNCONDITIONAL, A MUSICAL MEMOIR at Skylight Theatre

Unconditional, A Musical Memoir is a must-see new world premiere at Skylight Theatre in Los Feliz through March 9th.  Margot Rose is a vibrant, powerful storyteller, and her true story is a chronicle of love, loss, and family.  This is an indelible, intimate tale about all those beloved things that you think that you have, forever, until you realize that life just gave them to you temporarily, on loan, to be taken at any time.  Unconditional is utterly heartbreaking, explosive with tenderness and the irresistible bittersweetness of memory.

Unconditional is a difficult show to describe, and one that I do not want to spoil with too much of its twists, turns, and shocking reveals.  This is Margot Rose’s intimate, personal story to tell, in her own words, and she does so beautifully.

I can say that Margot Rose brilliantly chronicles home, children and family in all its beauty, mess, insanity, labor and spellbinding magic.  The love and care of raising children generally eludes rich description, being something so basic, so necessary, like salt, that it seems to lack any adequate adjectives, being that essential ingredient without which other, more complex things, would be flavorless.  Rose narrates her family life like this:

“Those kids! We loved them with the ferocity reserved for middle-aged lesbians making children. Just not each other, like we did for years. No third parties or betrayals; not that simple. I'm putting a pin in it. But that ferocious love kept us in the ring for years, our fights evaporating in the non- stop cacophony of raising kids - and we were frequently happy. Until we weren’t.”

Margot Rose’s simple, heartfelt, brutally honest, straight-to-audience narration feels so pure and so truthful that you lose yourself in her story almost instantly.  There are some lines from a wonderful Melina Young and Aaron Benham, and live music from superb band members Melina Young, Novi Novog, Justin Lottie, and Larry Tuttle.

The live music, in fact, is one my favorite parts of this performance, composed and performed by Margot Rose, with musical direction, arrangements and additional music by Aaron Benham.  The songs are folksy, melodic, haunting, full of tender loveliness, capturing all those ineffable, gossamer small moments in life that break you open with their intensity.  I love Rose’s soaring, simple song capturing her little girl’s joy in dance, that magic buoyancy of childhood:

LOOKIT ME LOOKIT ME LOOKIT ME MARMEE

I'M DANCING LOOKIT ME LOOKIT ME

LOOKIT ME FEELS LIKE I CAN FLY

LOOKIT ME LOOKIT ME LOOKIT IT’S MAGIC

I’M DANCING LOOKIT ME LOOKIT ME LOOK

I’M UP HERE IN THE SKY.

This is mostly a one-woman show, and Margot Rose is a powerhouse, spell-weaving storyteller.  Direction by Anne Kenny is nuanced, sensitive, and unerring.

Unconditional A Musical Memoir is a one-of-a-kind musical journey that you did not want to miss.

I greatly admire Producing Artistic Director Gary Grossman’s commitment at Skylight Theatre to producing original, vibrant new works by female playwrights and honoring and celebrating the female voice. Hungry Ghost by Lisa Sanaye Dring and No Place Like Gandersheim by Elizabeth Dement were both bold, brilliant plays that have stayed indelibly with me, and it is always a delight to see another new work, exquisitely produced, on stage here at Skylight.

Skylight Theatre is located in the historic heart of Los Feliz, in the midst of several charming blocks that are worth exploring on foot before or after the show.  I can always happily get lost in the book stacks at Skylight Books, dive into an improbably gigantic slice of pie at the 1969 diner House of Pies, share stools with hipsters at Fred 62, or disappear into the low lit 1930s Paris atmosphere of Figaro Bistrot’s back room with a plate of crusty French bread and ratatouille.

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