A triptych of one-act musicals developed by Harold Prince at his New York workshop and world-premiered last fall at Philadelphia's Prince Music Theater, 3hree features the work of a batch of gifted young writers and composers. There is no over- riding theme or concept to the evening, except that all three pieces take place in small towns and are acted by the same team of actors (whom we see in the two brief act breaks changing costumes and wigs right on stage -- a clever touch). The Mice (inspired by a scene in a Sinclair Lewis novel) deals with an exterminator's illicit love affair; Lavender Girl is a deep-South ghost story; The Flight of the Lawnchair Man is about a New Joisey guy who rigs up party balloons to his Wal-Mart folding chair and takes flight.
The tone of The Mice is cynical and saucy: the exterminator (John Scherer) is aided by his mistress (the hilarious Valerie Wright), who breeds mice and seeds her neighbor's houses with them so that they'll have to call the exterminator—who, naturally, orders them to clear out for a few days, leaving the premises free for a little hanky-panky. Lavender Girl is a wistfully romantic and Cinderella- like piece (set in the Jazz Age) about a a handsome young man (Will Gartshore) who meets a mysterious and fetching girl in lavender (Rachel Ulanet) who turns out to be a phantom.
Lawnchair Man, the final piece, is directed by Prince and is the funniest and most crowd-pleasing. Jerry (Eddy Korbich), an ordinary Joe who has dreamt of flight all his life, launches himself airbound on his home-made flying machine, spurred on by his suburban girlfriend Gracie (Donna Lynn Champlin). Up there he's spotted by an outraged airline pilot (Scherer) and his ditzy flight attendant (Wright), who report him to an obnoxious FAA agent (Anne Bobby). As these three authority figures try to talk Jerry down, he is visited by such pioneers of flight as Leonardo da Vinci (Roger E. Dewitt), Charles Lindberg (Herndon Lackey) and Amelia Earhart (Ulanet), who encourage him to stay aloft and realize his dream, just as they did. All of 3hree's pieces feature sprightly music and lyrics and are backed by expert direction and performances. They combine to make an unusual and highly entertaining night in the theater.
