Review - In Transit: Life Is Like A Train

Though set designer Anna Louizos supplies a realistically grimy subway platform for Primary Stages' mounting of the new a cappella musical In Transit, the characters scurrying underground are disappointingly squeaky clean.

Bookwriter/composer/lyricists Kristen Anderson-Lopez, James-Allen Ford, Russ Kaplan and Sara Wordsworth, along with director Joe Calarco, present a rather generically wholesome view of what might be called a collection of typical New Yorkers getting through the day-to-day annoyances of urban living. Hosted, in a sense, by a perennially upbeat subway performer named Boxman (Chesney Snow, the sort of fellow who can create an entire rhythm section by cupping his hand over a microphone pressed to his lips), In Transit truly takes off when its seven-member cast, under music director Mary-Mitchell Campbell, launch into the festive harmonies of its appealing melodies but with its clichéd humor and Up With People-ish tone, you can expect major delays while stuck in blandness.

Out-of-work actress Jane (Denise Summerford) leads a reggae tune about the indignities of office temping ("No dental... no 401(k)...") and eventually meets a potential mate in Nate (Graham Stevens), an unemployed Wall-Streeter whose benefits have run dry to the point where a MetroCard glitch leaves him without a way to get to a job interview. A somewhat embarrassing scene has Celisse Henderson playing every tired negative stereotype associated with transit workers. Nate's chance meeting with Jane at a sports bar happy hour is facilitated by one of his high-finance chums, a role that gives Steve French a chance to be terrifically hammy singing about his job as a wing man.

Meanwhile, Trent (Tommar Wilson), who is closeted to his family in Texas, sees his mom's (Henderson) first visit to New York as an opportunity to come out. It's a nice scene played with believable subtlety. Trent has his own chance meeting with old roommate Ali (Hannah Laird), fresh from a bad break-up, and the two of them renew their friendship, supplying mutual support.

Bits of cleverness pop up here and there; a character explains how New Yorkers can justify spending $14 on a gin and tonic because they save money by having their roots canals done by student dentists, and a very funny sight gag covers the subject of noisy groups of kids crowding the trains, but the main attraction of In Transit is hearing the snazzy blend of strong voices. The rest might start you wondering if the L train really does go out to Branson.

Photos by James Leynse: Top: Denise Summerford and Chesney Snow; Bottom: Steve French, Tommar Wilson, Denise Summerford, Hannah Laird

Click here to follow Michael Dale on Twitter.