BWW Reviews: 5th Ave's JASPER IN DEADLAND Provides No Reason to Live

If you're going to tell a story about a journey to hell and back then you need to have a reason. Some kind of moral or message or even just an engaging character that the audience can grab ahold of to root for success. Unfortunately the new musical "Jasper in Deadland", currently at the 5th Avenue Theatre, offers none of those things. On top of that it fails to offer any kind of memorable or plot-moving songs leaving me to wonder who this show was written for since it obviously wasn't the audience.

Hunter Foster and Ryan Scott Oliver's take on an Orpheus and Eurydice like journey through hell starts with young Jasper (Matt Doyle) waking up in bed next to his best friend Agnes. But when he fails to say, "I love you" back to her she runs off. Jasper soon gets a phone call to meet her at the diving cliffs that she fears so he can face her and the love he fears. But when he gets there she's nowhere to be found. Fearing she dove in and is now hurt he jumps in after her and sets off on a journey through the underworld to bring her back to the land of the living. Along the way he meets a random assortment of Gods and mythical beings from various countries and religions who attempt to block his path from finding her. But none worse than Mr. Lethe (Louis Hobson) who runs this way station before the underworld and has a sinister plan of his own and is looking to use Jasper to accomplish it.

Visually the show is wonderful. The sets from Jason Sherwood, costumes from Pete Rush and puppets from Kyle Loven are a wonder and really make the tone of the world the characters are trying to inhabit. The problem is the script and the music (so the show itself). We start off the show not getting to know either of our two main characters so there is absolutely no investment in them or their quest. In fact the show shoots itself in the foot from the get go by hiding Agnes from us and portraying her by using all of the women in the ensemble to give a minor piece of her. So we can't really care about her or know why Jasper is set on rescuing her. Nor can we really care about Jasper since he's written so two dimensionally. All we really know is that he slept with her and can't tell her he loves her. So why do we care? We do get to know them a bit more as the show goes on. Like we find out that Jasper is really angsty due to a rotten home life where his Mom cheated on his Dad (a fact that is reiterated so often they should turn it into a drinking game) but the who or why of these characters is never really revealed making the why of the plot itself non-existent.

And then there's the music. There was barely one song that conveyed much of anything or that I'd want to hear again. So many repetitive lyrics (yes, "stroke" rhymes with "stroke") and dissonant chords and nothing that moved the story along. Lot's of songs about where we are at the moment (which we already know) and nothing about what we want or where we're going (which would drive the show instead of stopping it).

The cast does what they can with the piece but it's so much a journey from one underworld character to another that it just becomes a running list of gags. Doyle is a fun and engaging performer and definitely has a killer voice but is given such a flat character that I couldn't care about him. And Sydney Shepherd as his Deadland guide Gretchen falls into the same trap, talented but nothing to work with. Really the best parts of the evening were Hobson as Lethe (whose song was the one I liked) and Taryn Darr as his assistant Hathaway who took minor scenes and turned them into gold.

I have to say I was extremely disappointed in this. I was so looking forward to it. I mean who doesn't love a good musicalized tale of the devil and the underworld like the brilliant "Damn Yankees" or the lyrical "The Frogs". And Director Brandon Ivie usually brings in such good stuff to any show. Plus, new musical! Always a good reason to get out of bed. But this show failed on so many levels to tell any kind of appealing, coherent or even interesting story that I'm forced to give it a frustrated NAH with my three letter rating system. Jasper may be in Deadland, but the audience is in musical theater hell.

"Jasper in Deadland" performs at the 5th Avenue Theatre through May 24th. For tickets or information contact the 5th Avenue Theatre box office at 206-625-1900 or visit them online at www.5thavenue.org.

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