Review: GIRLFRIEND Produced by Dezart Performs

Back on July 4, 1993, Matthew Sweet was recording a live album at Grant Park in Chicago. It was a beautiful sunny day and there was a cool breeze coming off Lake Michigan. My theater pals and I were sitting on blankets enjoying the weather and listening to Sweet, waiting to hear all of our favorites off his album Girlfriend. One of my theater pals was a boy who was my best friend.

Being in love with your best friend is awkward. We spent all of our free time together, talked on the phone at least three times a day. We were all tangled up in each other, and had so many clumsy moments of sexual tension that everyone, including me, wondered when we were finally going to declare our love for one another.

Set in 1990s Nebraska, Girlfriend has a similar plot line - a burgeoning friendship with a "will they or won't they" situation between the high school jock and the class "weirdo". But there's a tiny twist.

Will (Eddie Vona) knows he's gay, everyone else pretty much knows it too, and that's basically why he's considered the "weirdo". Coming out in Alliance, Nebraska, a very small town (in the 1990s the population was a scant 9,832) was risky, and in the word "acceptance" hadn't yet made it into the school curriculum. No one dared wave their flag.

When we first meet Will, he's so thrilled to be done with high school he's dumping his books in the trash and shouting "Happy New Year." He seems a bit aimless with no future plans. Maybe a gig in a fast food joint or Walmart, but no higher education planned.

Mike [Kyle T. Hester], on the other hand, has an unseen girlfriend, he's a local baseball star, and he hangs around with the testosterone types. His dad wants him to be a doctor, but what Mike really wants is to be a musician like indie darling, Matthew Sweet. Still, Mike plans to honor thy father and leave for Lincoln in the fall to start pre-Med.

At graduation, Mike has given Will a "mixed tape" that is not mixed at all, it's Sweet's 1991 hit album Girlfriend. Will is excited because he didn't even know Mike knew his name, much less to give him a not-mixed mixed tape.

What happens next is 90 minutes of "will they or won't they" wrapped up in Mike's conflicted sexuality and trying to find their way to each other through the songs of Girlfriend. It's Sweet in many ways.

Written by Todd Almond, the story is touching, but quite frankly it feels unfinished. The book relies on its actors to do the thrust of the work, and hope the audience overlooks what's lacking.

Luckily, Vona and Hester pull it off.

Vona's vocals are strong, and initially it seems like he is going to carry the musical numbers in the show, but as the two actors warm to the stage, it's ultimately Hester's voice that hits all the right, longing notes.

Hester's Mike is sometimes stoic, sometimes giddy with anticipation, but always guarded about his sexuality. He clearly knows he has real feelings for Will, but he can't bring himself to act on them.

Stand out songs of the evening were I've Been Waiting, Winona. Evangeline, and the eponymous title song, Girlfriend, all performed by Vona and Hester.

Joshua Carr is the musical director, and stepped in for conductor/pianist Jeni Lynne who had some family issues. Carr sings the only song not performed by the leads,You Don't Love Me. It's another highlight and rather heartbreaking.

Ray Limon's choreography is light, not much need here for giant musical numbers, that's not what this show is.

All of the technicals are subtle because there's no need for a complicated lighting design although Joel Howden did a great job with the "movie" effect at the drive-in.

Sound design by Ryan Hickey fit the bill, although with the pantomimed car cues - it starts, and the horn works when Mike uses them - I wanted to hear the car doors shut as well. I guess I am an all or nothing kind of gal.

I found Thomas L. Valach's set perplexing. Mike and Will's bedrooms are placed right next to each other, and it felt like they should have been miles apart. I felt like a separation would have worked better especially in the beginning, like a split screen. Since the songs are ostensibly one of the characters, having the band between the two bedroom sets would have worked fine, and allowed the characters to meet in the middle in front of the band when they performed the music. On a personal note: I have raved about Valach's sets in the past, he's a master at set design. They're really spectacular. But this one didn't have the same magic for me.

Michael Shaw's direction is fine. The play and the set as it was doesn't really give the characters much to do, which leaves a heavy burden on the director to find it and make it feel organic.

The onstage band consisted of Carr (piano), Robert Gross on bass, Bob Marino on drums, and Robert Scarano on drums - all fine musicians who worked well under Carr's musical direction.

Although Girlfried has played on large stages across the country, I can't help feeling that this intimate story deserves an intimate space. It relies entirely on the chemistry between its two sole actors, their growing love for each other, and the sexual tension between them. Their faces need to be seen to make it palpable, which is hard to do from the back of an amphitheater. Back in 2019, Dezart mounted Maytag Virgin in their normal space and the audience got hit smack in the feels, and had you falling in love along with the two characters. I wanted that so bad.

Above all else, Girlfriend is a love story, two people facing obstacles they need to overcome before they can find a happy ending. Does this production get that point across? Yes, it does. It's a pleasant evening. Does Girlfriend stand out as a great play and musical? Not for me. But that's okay. I don't like caviar either.

As to my romance in 1993 I'll just say that Mike and Will's outcome was much different than mine.

Girlfriend is a Dezarts Performs production sponsored by David Hood and George Sellers at the Rancho Mirage Amphitheater.

*Photography by David A. Lee

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