a new brain review
Steeped in a melodic sentimentality that is given full due here by the Encores! The specter of imminent mortality, it seems, brings out the sweetheart in Mr. Finn, a songwriter who is best when spiky.Granted, the alter ego Mr. Finn has created for himself, embodied by Mr. Groff, is said to be a difficult fellow. For one thing, it’s highly autobiographical. production of William Finn’s 1998 musical, at City Center.Jonathan Groff, center, in the Encores!
As Gordon’s nearest and dearest rally to provide support, he sinks into self-defeating depression and wonders plaintively about all the songs he’ll never have the chance to write.This allows Mr. Finn to come up with numbers that render the grimness of a hospital patient’s lot with sardonic bounciness and hard-landing rhymes, as well as more earnest anthems of doubt and pain for Gordon, with titles like “The Music Still Plays On” and “Don’t Give In.”These are performed with conviction by a cast that also includes Ana Gasteyer, who gives an engagingly unforced performance as Mimi, Gordon’s dominating mother, and Aaron Lazar (looking like a Brooks Brothers ad) as Roger, his sailboat-obsessed lover. His name is Gordon Michael Schwinn, and shortly after the show begins, he is found at the piano, lamenting his job writing silly songs for an appalling children’s television host named Mr. Bungee (an agreeably annoying Dan Fogler, who appeared in Mr. Finn’s “Gordon soon learns, though, that there are graver things to worry about. As this is based on the composer’s real-life experience, what unique challenges and experiences did you have when bringing this script to life?
Review: In ‘A New Brain,’ Heading into Surgery and Singing the Whole WayJonathan Groff and Aaron Lazar in a scene from the Encores! Groff’s air of troubled sensitivity is an automatic asset in a show about an embattled young composer in the shadow of death.
Another recurring character is a rather vicious, unlikable homeless woman, portrayed by Laura Cetti.
We come to see how Gordon is so concerned with things outside his control, that he has neglected the people who love him most. Other, more peripheral characters — blessed with showstopping voices, fortunately — appear to suggest that life isn’t all that swell for anybody. A New Brain, which has been directed with wit and elegance by Graciela Daniele, has moments of captivating eccentricity. Mr. Bungee vacillates between jovial and avuncular as the frog and demanding and unreasonable as the boss, representing the stress and frustration as an artist that Gordon felt leading up to his collapse. For one thing it at times leapfrogs like Mr. Bungee, to the brink of sappiness and the … “An attractively abstract, shadow-filled production directed by Mr. Lapine, the show remains, as it was, what is essentially one long, harmonious thank-you note for second chances in life...'A New Brain' has been given a top-flight physical production...Both eccentrically individual and universal... read more Given an attractively abstract, shadow-filled production directed by Mr. Lapine, the show remains, as it was, what is essentially one long, harmonious thank-you note for second chances in life.Steeped in a melodic sentimentality that is given full due here by the Encores! But watching it is often like passing a group of animated, slightly drunken revelers on the street: you're glad … I think the songs, like most of William Finn’s work, is the perfect combination of complexity and a “hummable tune.” The harmonies are gorgeous, the music is lush, the lyrics are clever and poignant.
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