Review: BLUEBERRIES, BROADWAY, AND BRIAN: Storytelling at Its Best

Director, producer, actor Brian P. Allen is a born raconteur with a wicked sense of humor and his latest version of his hilarious one-man show, Blueberries, Broadway, and Brian, which he performed at the Strand Theater in Rockland and will reprise in Springvale, ME, speaks to Allen's wit, turn of phrase, and deliciously outrageous sense of humor.

The evening-long monologue recounts Allen's autobiographical journey from scion of a Maine blueberry dynasty (Allen's Blueberries is one of the world's largest producers of wild blueberries) to a familiar fixture on the New York and regional theatre scene.Told with a self-deprecating humor and just the right blend of provocative and boyish charm, Allen narrates his family history, his flying in the face of parental expectations by choosing a life in the theatre, and countless stories of the colorful characters he has met along the way.

As a writer and storyteller (and surely that is one of his chief gifts as a director), Allen has a wise and penetrating sense of human nature with its foibles and endearing traits, and he brings this descriptive ability to bear on his own relatives and on some of the more well-known theatrical personages with whom he has crossed paths. Perhaps no portrait is more colorful that his recreation of Victoria Crandall, the eccentric and indomitable founder of Maine State Music Theatre, who served as Allen's first employer and mentor. "Vicki" stories abound, told sometimes scathingly, mostly lovingly, and they enthrall in the same way that the young Allen was held in thrall by the world of Broadway to which Crandall introduced him.

Allen's personal saga is offered as an explanation for why a boy from Ellsworth and Union, Maine, a boy destined to assume the reins of the family blueberry business, instead, chose to spend a life in the theatre and become a well-respected actor, director, and producer. On the surface this may all seem an unlikely course of events, but Allen weaves the stories and the connections so masterfully that the transition becomes very clear. Because, like any fine writer, Brian Allen views life as a series of theatrical episodes and the people he meets as characters full of amazing surprises and wonderful depth of material. No doubt, the theatricality he saw in his grandparents and parents may have escaped other people's notice, but for Allen these were individuals whose stories were rich and colorful and waiting to be told.

And he has woven these and so many more together into a tapestry that is still a work in progress. The version I saw of this some years ago contained some of the same set pieces, but new material has been added, and like a good jazz musician, Allen continues to improvise on the themes, keeping the piece current and fresh for repeated viewings.

Allen's delivery is both casual and theatrical, slightly camp, but always timed perfectly with the instincts of a good stand up comedian. And when he concludes the show with a comically mimed rendition of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," he shows himself adept not only at verbal humor but at a sophisticated silliness.

Just before he concludes the evening, Allen quotes a favorite maxim of his: :It's only life. You can't get it wrong." It is a motto that suggests the encouragement to experiment, to dare, to be different, and to eschew the idea that there is actually a "right way" for anything. And these are all traits which define the best in acting and theatre.

Photo courtesy Brian P. Allen

Blueberries, Broadway and Brian played The Strand, Rockland July 13 and the Nasson Community Center Little Theatre in Springvale, ME on as part of the Good Theater on Tour.

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