Larry Toffler, Joe Clabby, and Lindsey Garcia Freiberg (Photo by Doug Engalla)
Reviewed by Madison Mellon
The Group Rep
Through February 22
Lloyd Pedersen (Photo by Doug Engalla)
The Group Rep’s production of The Altruist arrives with a compellingly strange premise and the promise of dark, campy fun. Billed by writer Bill Fitzhugh as a “play-with-music,” the piece flirts with the kind of gleefully macabre territory occupied by cult favorites like Little Shop of Horrors, Reefer Madness, or Repo! The Genetic Opera. It’s the sort of offbeat idea that begs for boldness and confidence, which are qualities this production gestures toward but never fully embraces.
The story centers on Sean Adams (Joe Clabby), an unassuming man who discovers he has multiple terminal illnesses and becomes determined to donate as many of his organs as possible before he dies. When a television interview turns his case into a viral sensation, Broadway producer Leonard Stratten (Lee Grober) swoops in, eager to turn Sean’s story into a splashy musical. What follows is a tale of altruism and showbiz opportunism.
On paper, this setup is rich with comic potential, but The Altruist struggles to get out of its own way. The show opens by repeatedly justifying itself, with Stratten explicitly reminding the audience that musicals about strange or dark subject matter (Sweeney Todd, Assassins) have worked before. Nearly every musical number is similarly prefaced, with Stratten explaining what kind of song is about to occur, such as defining the “I Want” song before it happens. While a certain amount of meta humor is appropriate for a show like this, these explanations consistently interrupt and drain the energy from the piece, making it difficult to sink into the show’s internal logic.
That disconnect is unfortunately compounded by the musical choices. The score is composed of standards from the early 1900s through the 1920s with rewritten lyrics, which is justified in the show as a cost-saving measure due to their public-domain status. While that joke lands once, the style of the music has little aesthetic or thematic relevance to the story itself. Unlike most jukebox musicals, where song choices reinforce tone or era, these numbers feel nonspecific, and the abrupt shifts between dialogue and song fracture the show’s rhythm.
Still, there is an appealing earnestness at the heart of The Altruist. The cast is game and committed to the show’s off-kilter humor, and there are genuinely amusing twists and turns along the way, including the last-minute sudden derailment of Sean’s organ-donation quest. The pacing, especially in the first act, is also strong and leans into the story’s quickly-escalating absurdity. One can sense the bones of a sharper, funnier show beneath the surface.
This could be strengthened if there was more willingness to push the material to its extremes. Bruce Kimmel’s direction and Cheryl Baxter’s choreography often feel restrained for a piece that requires excess. Scenes frequently unfold with characters seated and static, while musical numbers are staged conservatively, sometimes amounting to little more than a slow kickline. A premise this bizarre calls for a more madcap, no-holds-barred approach.
Ultimately, The Altruist has a strong foundation and an intriguing idea, but it never fully commits to its own absurdity. Many successful shows built around similarly strange concepts work because they trust the audience to follow them into unfamiliar territory. There is a level of commitment and sincerity underneath the weirdness. The Altruist gets partway there but doesn’t fully deliver on the wild ride it promises.
The Group Rep, 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood. Fri.-Sat. 8 pm; Sun. 2 pm; thru Feb. 22. www.thegrouprep.com. Running time: two hours with an intermission.
