This one's been presented in the area so often that I almost wrote The Last Time Around as the title. Author-composer Jason Robert Brown seens to be very popular locally. At Venice Theater, someone has committed to doing all of his work whenever possible.
What I feel is, like VT's cabaret, an intimate venue is the best setting for a mini-musical closeup on a romance gone awry. The grandeur of the Historic Asolo setting somehow makes a young woman at the end of marriage questioning its dissolution, while alternately her man recalls its genesis, seem somewhat unimportant.
Two benches comprise the props. Major walls prove place "dividers" as well as screens for projections. These show places -- notably Central Park, a bar, a big bookstore, the couples' apartment in New York City along with rural houses surrounded by electric wires, a 5-fast-foods restaurant complex, a summer theater in Ohio.
A reel clip of the couple's wedding and stills of them in early happy days provide comparisons with what happens in their real life. Aaron Rhyne's projections, in fact, steal the show. Not because the two leads aren't right for their parts, but because their personae aren't nearly as interesting.
Jamie is a lively, urban, Jewish, upcoming writer of fiction, fascinated with the notion -- abhorrent to his mother -- of hooking up with a beautiful, sweet Shiksa. Cathy fits that bill. From a small town, she aspires to be an actress but at one point erroneously thinks she might be content as a wife and mother.
Varied types of song, from ballads to jazz to funk (which, curiously, sound pretty much alike and sometimes contain forced rhyme) consist mainly of monologues. They predominate over rare bits of spoken dialogue. With hers going back in time while his do the opposite, togetherness comes only at the marriage proposal and subsequent ceremony.
Though the structure is unusual, we know from the start the plot's end. Does that make us see deeper into the stages that lead to it as each of the couple comes to them? Would times, especially the years, and places be clear without the projections? Does each principal's ambitions for and outside the marriage get fair treatment? Lacking suspense, does the plot have us looking at our watches? Does form trump substance in Brown's musical?
No one should quarrel with the performances of real life marrieds Sam Osheroff and Kris Danford. His voice matches the spirit of Jamie's character, who retains charm even when he's egotistical and unfaithful. Pretty Kris is lovely as can be at the real beginning (where her singing is clearest) but effectively projects an object more to be pitied in ending phases.
Four musicians behind the dividers upstage add to the grand production values director Michael Donald Edwards has ordained for a little musical. It may be considered cleverly put together or an elevation of a gimmick, but it's an unsurpassable treat for fans of Brown.
