Murder Ballad the Rock Musical
The stage is spare — most of the scene-setting for this tale of Big City Love comes via black and white photos projected on a screen above the stage — but hey look, there’s a baseball bat on the bar! Chekhov would be proud. This ballad — they’re not kidding, just about everything is sung, sometimes better than others — is only 10 years old, but the rock and roll backup band and the evocation of a grotty downtown scene in Manhattan make it feel like a throwback, as does the straightforward storyline of passion, betrayal, and violence. There’s a nod toward modern meta-stuff at both beginning and end —the audience is reminded that “There But For the Grace of God Go I” at the outset, and when the blood has stopped flowing, the four-person cast smiles and proclaims, “That’s entertainment, unless it happens to you!” But in between, it’s the the story of Sara, a downtown bad girl who loves downtown bad boy Tom, but you know how these things go, and after a while, she winds up married to good guy Michael, while Tom pals around with the unhappy narrator. Until!
There’s lots to enjoy: the way expressions of love and understanding curdle into declarations of obsession and suspicion, the lamentable distance between image and reality, the occasional echoes of famous pop melodies. There are occasional sags and hiccups in the drama, plus lyrical clunkers here and there —“In life’s game we all take part/ Losing’s easy, winning’s hard” And a woman wondering “Who will I be from 9 to 3?” feels weirdly dated as a reason for calling an old flame. But the thing has the requisite energy to carry the story and juice the audience, and when it stops to take a breath and ruminate, the results are surprisingly effective. (“Let me count the ways I love her/ and then count the ways I don’t/ I would do anything for her/ Except the things I won’t.”) A fun final effort from Artistic Manager Matt FitzGerald, who also directs, handles set, sound, and projection design, and plays bass in the band.
When
Ongoing until Sunday, November 6, 2022
Hours
| Sundays, 2pm-3:30pm |
| Fridays, 8pm-9:30pm |
| Saturdays, 8pm-9:30pm |