By Ruth Ross
We've had juke box musicals (Jersey Boys, Movin' Out, Motown the Musical). We've had comic book musicals (Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark). Well, now we have a combination of the two in Getting the Band Back Together, a very loud, testosterone-driven hot mess of an "adolescent revenge fantasy" receiving its world premiere under the direction of John Tando (who helmed 2008's The Toxic Avenger) at the George Street Playhouse. If your taste runs to silly musicals like The Toxic Avenger and Rock of Ages, you’ll probably love this; they are not really my idea of an American musical, so I was underwhelmed.
Getting the Band Back Together tells the tall tale of Mitchell Martino, a 40-year-old investment banker who loses a job he hates, a New York apartment and a girlfriend he doesn't have and moves home to live with his mother in Sayreville, a small blue-collar town in Middlesex County, New Jersey (aka "Exit 124" or "New York's Plan B"—and home to Jon Bon Jovi). There, he encounters his adolescent nemesis, the villain Tygen Billows, aging leader of a rock band named "Mouth Feel" (they sing "How does your mouth feel?" ad nauseum) who believes that, 20 years before, he was cheated out of a Battle of the Bands trophy by Mitch's band "Juggernaut." Foreclosing on Sharon Martino's house (Billows owns most of the town), Tygen agrees to settle the musical rivalry once and for all at this year's Battle of the Bands where, if he wins, he will let Sharon off the financial hook for $25,000 and lift the foreclosure notice. Thus, the conflict is played out over two interminable acts, spiced up by several romantic plot lines, frenetic dance routines and a down-to-the wire resolution.
Getting the Band Back Together has plenty of talent behind it, but what the musical lacks is characters we actually care about. If the creators, Ken Davenport and a creative group called The Grundleshotz (Book) and Mark Allen (music and lyrics), meant for this show to be a satire, they rely too heavily on New Jersey stereotypes, lame jokes and two-dimensional cartoon characters. Even Kinky Boots and Priscilla Queen of the Desert had a heart. The play lacks the clever knowingness of last season's [title of show]; everything is played full-out with lots of cheap, smutty, male adolescent sex jokes and music played at top decibel noise level. I suggest taking ear plugs.
The actors' talent far outstrips the material they have to work with. The Juggernauts seem to get up to speed in an instant, with Mitchell Jarvis (Mitch), Jay Klaitz (overweight math teacher Bart Vickers), Adam Monley (cop Michael Sullivan) and Manu Narayan (dermatologist Robbie Patel) picking up their instruments (pretending) to play with great virtuosity after a 20-year lapse. Kind of strains one's credulity. To take the place of their dead band mate Kenny (the best musician they had), they enlist high school student Ricky Bling, a jive-talking rapper prone to cracking AARP jokes. (Above, L-R: Adam Monley, Jay Klaitz, Mitchell Jarvis, and Manu Narayan) As Sharon Martini, Alison Fraser plays an oversexed, foul-mouthed, sexy senior to the max; unfortunately, as written and played, Sharon is a more annoying than attractive character. This group of actors dances and sings well, so that we do find ourselves rooting for them.
On the other hand, Brandon Williams' Tygen Billows is a snarling, smarmy super-villain, perfect for comic books but over-the-top onstage. Whenever he appears, he sings the same song and spouts the same nonsense about losing a plastic trophy to Mitch over two decades ago! He's abetted in this tomfoolery by Ryan Duncan and Garth Kravits as his Neanderthal-type band mates. Their musical prowess (or lack thereof) explains their loss. (L-R: Ryan Duncan, Brandon Williams, and Garth Kravits)
Support, if you can call it that, is provided by Michelle Duffy as Mitch's prom date and former squeeze Dani Franco (now involved with Tygen), her Goth daughter Billie (Heather Brave with not much to do except sulk), Emily McNamara as Tawney Truebody, the Canadian who becomes the inamorata of Robbie Patel. None of these actresses has much to do to develop characters or plot; they are pretty much candy for the eyes.
If I seem underwhelmed by Getting the Band Back Together, I am. I can accept the lame rhymes; after all, most rock and roll songs' rhymes were predictable. I had a hard time placing the era of the original music. The program says that the time is the present, so 20 years before would be the early 1990s. Ricky Bling uses words like "shizzle" (popularized by Snoop Dogg) that no rapper would use today, and the music played by the bands sounds like it comes from the 80s. The playwrights and composers cannot decide which decade to use as a source for the music, and the result is a mash-up of styles and sounds.
Most of the songs parody rock music ("American Dream," "Heavy Petting" and "Ride On, Cowboy"), but "Bart's Confession" (I Slept with Your Mom) complete with suggestive twerking and leering, Mouth Feel's rather lewd "Power Tool" and a scene where Juggernaut plays at a Hasidic wedding are tasteless. "Do Over," sung by Mitch's band at the battle is somewhat inspiring, as is Mitch's lament that he doesn't want to be "One of Those Guys" who never follows his dream. The ending is too pat to be believable, but totally appropriate to the play's cartoonish aspect. (L-R: Manu Narayan, Mitchell Jarvis, Adam Monley, Jay Klaitz, and Evan Daves)
The band onstage accompanying the actors is energetic and accomplished; compliments to musical director Fred Lassen. Kelly Devine's choreography is sprightly, Gregory Gale's costumes are loud and appropriate, and Derek McLane's set and Ken Billington's lighting further the comic-book effect. That the creators don't really know central Jersey is evident in the interracial romance between Sully Sullivan and fellow-police officer Roxanne Collins (Dierdre Goodwin), something I doubt would be accepted so readily, even today, in a conservative, blue-collar community. Ditto Bart's love for his friend's senior citizen mother, never mind how sexy she is. Both are sour notes in the script.
If Getting the Band Back Together had given us a knowing wink that all of this is totally ludicrous, I might have bought the premise. But its wackiness is overwhelming, not funny. Writing a new musical is a tricky proposition, but without a heart and characters to care about, it won't work.
Getting the Band Back Together will be performed at the George Street Playhouse, 9 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, through October 27. For information and tickets, call the box office at 732.246.7717 or visit www.GSPonline.org.
All photos by T. Charles Erickson.
