Review: MISS YOU LIKE HELL from Strawberry Theatre Workshop

Dear Readers, I firmly believe that the smaller theaters in the area can accomplish anything that the bigger budget theaters can.  Strawberry Theatre Workshop is a prime example of this as I’ve seen some stellar things from them over the years.  Unfortunately, their current production of the musical “Miss You Like Hell” feels like maybe they bit off a little more than they could chew. 

This promising new musical with music and lyrics from Erin McKeown and book by Quiara Alegría Hudes (who wrote the book for “In the Heights” by the way) follows a mother and daughter, Beatriz and Olivia (Maggie Carrido and Stephanie Roman), who are on a cross country road trip.  Estranged from each other for years, free spirited Beatriz shows up out of the blue and coaxes 16-year-old Olivia to join her.  It’ll be time for them to reconnect, she says, but in reality, she hopes Olivia will testify before the court before she gets deported back to Mexico.  On the road they encounter several characters who help them on their way, but can they find a way to each other again?

The show has some wonderful and heartfelt moments, but also gets mired down in some superfluous moments that don’t move the story along.   That mixed with some lyrics that don’t quite work lyrically and the show itself has some rocky points.  But listening to the cast album from the Off-Broadway production I can find a wonderful heart of a show worth seeing.  Sadly, I had to listen to the recording to find that heart as the Strawberry Theatre Workshop production was so laden with inconsistencies, technical issues, and awkward staging that I felt it impossible to immerse myself in the show, as I was working too hard to surmount the glaring issues.

The biggest issue being the sound and clarity of the songs.  12th Ave Arts is an intimate space but when dealing with a band and singers who don’t always project or enunciate, I found myself missing half the lyrics.  And this show is all about its lyrics.  They even had the leads miked and mikes in the house but didn’t seem to use them effectively if at all.  So, in this alley staging (audience on two sides of the stage) if the performers were facing away from you, good luck hearing them.  Music director Olivia Pedroza and her band do their best to not overpower, and really do a fine job.  Mostly the lyrics are lost to location and lack of projection. 

All this is hampered further by some staging from director and choreographer Nicholas Japaul Bernard that baffled me.  Especially when, in the final climactic song from one of the leads, he placed her center stage but then had the ensemble lining the periphery making sure that many (me included) got to stare at the back of someone’s head instead of Roman who was selling the hell out of the number.  At least vocally she was.  I never got to see her.  That mixed with some staging that was anything but in unison or tight, made the show feel sloppy.

The cast is trying as hard as they can with the limitations given and do succeed at times.  Roman and Carrido are wonderful together and make the most of their solos.  Carrido felt at times as if she was pushing a bit too hard vocally making some of those lyrics even harder to hear, but overall was fantastic.  And Roman, too, kills in her solo moments.  Also bringing a moment of awesome to wake the audience up were Pilar O’Connell and Antonietta Carpio as two aging gay biker dudes getting married. 

But these bright spots of the evening aren’t quite enough to get past the issues which left the show feeling under thought out, under directed, and under rehearsed.  And so, with my three-letter rating system I give “Miss You Like Hell” from Strawberry Theatre Workshop a “just missed the mark” MEH+.  This one might have been a little too ambitious for them, especially since listening to the cast recording afterwards showed me what I was missing.

“Miss You Like Hell” from Strawberry Theatre Workshop performs at 12th Ave Arts through November 11th.  For tickets or information visit them online at www.strawshop.org.

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