BWW Reviews: TALES OF THE CITY: A NEW MUSICAL at American Conservatory Theater

It's very hard to stay objective when a favorite story of yours is taken to a New Medium and not used to its fullest potential.  Unfortunately, dear readers, such was the case of my latest journey outside of Seattle to see some things that the rest of the country has to offer theatrically.  But I'll try to remain objective while discussing American Conservatory Theater's production of "Tales of the City: A New Musical" that I witnessed in San Francisco.

For those unfamiliar with Armistead Maupin's hauntingly beautiful series of books "Tales of the City" we are in San Francisco, 1976, and we follow the denizens of 28 Barbary Lane where naïve Ohio girl Mary Ann Singleton (Betsy Wolfe) has just taken up lodging in order to shake up her ordinary life.  And who better to do that with than her new neighbors, the free spirited and boisterous Mona Ramsey (Mary Birdsong); the gay romantic Michael "Mouse" Tolliver (Wesley Taylor); the straight lothario Brian Hawkins (Patrick Lane); and of course their mysterious matriarch of a land lady Mrs. Anna Madrigal (Judy Kaye).  Add to them the free love of the 70's, dashes of intrigue and melodrama and set it to a 70's back beat and you have "Tales of the City".

But then, that over simplified formula is, I think, one of my biggest problems with the new musical version of these gorgeous stories.  Librettist Jeff Whitty felt he could take the characters, hit the high points and set it to a disco beat and it would work.  But the problem is the book is so jam packed with nuance and complexities that it took the first mini-series 6 hours to tell it all and even then they left some things out.  So to try and get it all out (or even some of it out) in two and a half hours is impossible.  That is, unless you take out the guts.  The pacing of the storyline and the reaveals of the plot points, which used to be so elegant and hard hitting, are now just doled out like a laundry list of character factoids.  There is so little build up or development of the characters that when their secrets come out there is very little to get invested in.  Add to that the songs from Jake Shears and John Garden of Scissor Sisters, while fitting within the era lacked any kind of ability to move the story and had some fairly benign and at times confusing for the sake of a rhyme lyrics.  There are shows that leave you humming the tunes as you leave the theater but here I don't think I can even remember a one.

And I cannot blame any of the show's shortcomings on the cast as they were nothing short of sublime.  Kaye, as always, is mesmerizing as the secretive Mrs. Madrigal.  Wolfe simply exudes joy and light as the small town Mary Ann with a killer voice.  Lane is deliciously single minded yet with a layer of sweetness and heart as the hound dog Brian.  And my favorites had to be Birdsong and Taylor as Mona and Mouse.  Birdsong managed to infuse attitude into every move, word and expression.  And Taylor was everything Mouse should be over brimming with heart and pain and with a stunner of a voice.

No the fault does not fall on the cast but with the writers and director Jason Moore as they tended toward forsaking the complexities of  characters and their stories in order to have several moments and plot points with them and it robs the piece of its heart.  And without its heart, what is the point?

I have to say, I was very excited when I heard that this was in the works.  Just another way to spend some time with some old literary friends.  But after seeing this I only wish I had left them on the page or at the very least in the movies.

"Tales of the City: A New Musical" performs at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater through July 31^st.  For tickets or information contact the ACT box office at 415-749-2228 or visit them online at www.act-sf.org.

Photo credit: Kevin Berne

 

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