Review - I'll Be Damned: With An Emphasis On The Testa

I'll be blunt. I'm not going to go into much detail about the problems With composer/bookwriter Rob Broadhurst and lyricist/bookwriter Brent Black's teenage Faustian musical, I'll Be Damned, since it's a fledgling effort and the Jaradoa Theater Company offers seats for a comparatively low price. The production will certainly be perking up the interest of Broadway fans With its casting of the broad and belty Mary Testa and popular up-and-comer Kenita R. Miller playing featured roles, but the piece is not ready to be reviewed.

I will tell you that the story shows some imagination by telling a classic old tale With a neat little twist. Nineteen-year-old Louis (Jacob Hoffman), who has lived a cloistered life With his home-schooling mom (Testa), lets out his loneliness by creating a comic strip superhero, Friendetta (Miller), who has the power to match people up as friends.

The only guest bothering to show up for Louis' roller skating birthday party is a dark and distinguished gentleman named - you guessed it - Satan (Kurt Robbins), who accepts the kid's soul in exchange for finding him a friend. It's not an easy task, even for the devil, because Louis' aggressively needy personality turns off potential pals, but in their quest Satan and Louis find that they themselves are becoming buds; a situation With hellish consequences.

Unfortunately, the telling is not as clever as the story itself. Despite hopes of being college-bound, Louis is written and performed as more of an adolescent. The dialogue goes overboard in trying to appeal to younger audiences ("You're a few heroes short of a Justice League.") and the traditional-sounding musical theatre score, while not unpleasant, is merely serviceable. (Though I can do Without rhymes like "Friendetta" and "ham and chedda.")

Director April Nickell's cast gives it a good try, though the awkwardness of Hoffman's Louis is too cartoonish to be empathetic. Robbins' low-key Satan livens up only when he gets to show off a strong baritone and despite the potential of Miller's superhero character, it's a blandly written role.

But as long as Mary Testa's on stage, there's something to watch. As the ultra-possessive mom so determined to be the only person in her son's life that she plans on home-schooling him to a college degree, she's saddled With tired lines like, "Mothers don't get mad, just disappointed," but manages to mine every on-stage moment for its comic potential. Even while pulling off a corny move like miming sewing when singing the word "so," she sparkles With the brash musical comedy moxie she delivers so well. The true miracle of the evening comes in the second act, when she punches up a supposed comedy song about going to The Vatican With so much physical and vocal nuttiness that it actually entertains.

Photos by Carol Rosegg: Top: Mary Testa and Jacob Hoffman; Bottom: Kurt Robbins, Kenita Miller, and Jacob Hoffman.

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