The Revolution Will
Not Be Harmonized
Chardonnay
 |
| Members of the Cast as "Freelancers" |
Imagine a world two hundred years from now where workers are
all freelancers. But also imagine that
in this post-apocalyptic world, everyone works for just one company,
Spotif-Eye, laboring diligently day in and day out at tasks like shredding
paper, shoveling dirt, or entering useless data that is never used. At the same time, all eagerly anticipate that
one day a year when the perfect song will be sung by the one lucky freelancer
chosen to sing it to the entire world – all the time knowing that if in the
meantime any one of them dares to hum, much less sing, even a few bars of some earworm
going through her head, shots will ring out; and gone will be one less freelancer.
Such is the premise for the world premiere musical, The Revolution Will Not Be Harmonized, now
showing at PianoFight and written/produced by Chardonnay. As a San Francisco-based sketch comedy group,
Chardonnay is a group of seven women who are venturing beyond their traditional
“Monday Night Foreplays” into the realm of a fully scripted musical. The result is dark comedy about the near-end
of the world where the question of humanity’s continued existence may be up to
three unlikely sisters of the freelance compound named BrandonsMom64,
SK8terchick, and Starfish1.
The premise is intriguing and imaginative in many ways. The execution is done with highly contagious
enthusiasm by the cast of nine women and one man. The bottom line is that the premiere musical
still feels more like an improvised, sketch comedy routine than it does a fully
(or even semi-) baked theatrical production.
That is not to say there are not some laughs and fun to be had; but the
desired polish of script, music/lyrics, and overall production is just not
there at this point.
Paper-shredder Starfish1 (or “Star” to her friends) is
actually pretty happy with her life in the Spotif-Eye universe where she
exists. Kaeli Quick literally bounces
through her life waiting for “The Festival” when the one perfect song of the
year will be sung (and in her dreams, by her).
What she cannot understand while surreptitiously singing with her buddy
JustLaxin (Leah Shesky) is why, “If singing is so wrong, why does it feel so
good?” The answer becomes all too clear
when her duet-partner Leah is downed by the watchful gun of the evil-eyed but
always smiling Lieutenant (Rachel Rockwood).
The Lieutenant is all-controlling in the freelancers’ world,
and she brags with puffed-up pride and in southern blues delivery, “I Do the
Choosing!” (This is the musical’s most developed and full-blown song about her
role in selecting who will sing that one, annual song.) The Lieutenant’s one obsession beyond
absolute control is her looks and especially her hair, something her prancing,
high-voiced hairdresser Maurice (Cooper Carlson) is quick to sculpt in all
sorts of futuristic shapes.
Under the heaps of waste outside the freelancer’s compound
exists an underground of resisters (all escaped ex-freelancers) led by Jan
(also played by Leah Shesky). There is
some mild humor harvested in this group’s obsessions with artifacts of the past
that they cannot quite figure out the original use (eyelash curler, Doritos
bags with some chips as artificially crisp as ever, a dildo, and even a Yellow Book telephone directory – now used
like a Bible by them). Particularly
strange in her over-the-top aggressive, bizarre, and sometimes funny behavior
is Extremist Nancy (spastically played by Meredith Terry Vaughan).
To help guide Star and her sister freelancers (Kitty Tores
as “Bran” and Kate Jones as “SK8”) to the resistors and possible redemption of
the world is Jessica Mele as the Elder. A Rastafarian-looking soul, she only speaks
using broken bits of song lyrics from the far-gone Twentieth Century (“Mama
said there would be days like this,” “The end of the world as we know it and I
feel fine,” “Stop in the name of love,” and so on and so on) – all of which is
somewhat amusing but only for a short while.
Unfortunately, the overall short production is interrupted
by an intermission, which has the effect of deflating the good will the first
act has actually built as a much weaker second act leads up to a finale that
looks like a bunch of friends created it at the end of a wild party night. Overall, most of Matt Grandy’s songs are
still under-developed and too often unevenly sung, with a couple of exceptions as
noted above. However, his keyboarding
and background sound effects are a highlight of the entire production. Hannah Barnard-Henke has created within
clearly a lean budget allotment a set of costumes that have an appropriate look
as one might to see in a comic book about the dystopian period depicted. The production overall seems to have been
produced on a shoestring budget; and with that in mind, much kudos goes to all
for what they have been able to accomplish.
The Revolution Will
Not Be Harmonized is not ready for prime time at this point. That is not to say that the opening night
audience did not have a rip-roaring time (helped partly by the ability to bring
in with them large drafts of beer from PianoFight’s nearby bar). If going-in expectations are set more for a still-raw
but extremely enthusiastic production that has a sense of spontaneity built
right into it, then a fun outing is certainly possible to be had.
Rating: 2 E
The Revolution Will
Not Be Harmonized continues through February 25, 2017, on PianoFight’s Main
Stage, 144 Taylor Street, San Francisco.
Tickets are available at http://www.pianofight.com.
Photo Credit: Jon Chang
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