Steven Wishnoff and Connie Jackson (Photo by Joshua Shelton)
Reviewed by Martίn Hernández
The Hudson Theater
Through December 8
Skimpy on plot but packed with vocal talent, this musical comedy follows an alienated young woman on her bumpy journey of self-discovery. With book, lyrics, and direction by Tom Chiodo and music by Joe Nedder, the show pokes playful fun at New Age beliefs, conventional religion, and mother/daughter relationships. There’s little thoughtful analysis, however, and the result is a breezy trifle with at best serviceable tunes and flimsily developed characters, thankfully enhanced by the ensemble’s dulcet tones under Nedder’s keen musical direction.
Virginia (a divinely voiced Queenie Navarro), a twenty-year-old college dropout, escapes an ill-defined conflict with her mom by hopping on a bus to the Great Beyond Ashram in the Arizona desert. There she meets a bevy of Devotees (Michael Deni, Ryan Foreman, Katherine Heflin, and Kim Taleas, all performing in blissful harmony) who invoke the psychic charms of their sanctuary (“The Great Beyond”). She finds a kindred spirit in Sam (Deni), and they contemplate their searches for their inner lives — and a joint connection of their outer lives (“Mirror Song”).
The Devotees portray the group’s leader Krishnamarti (Steven Wishnoff) as benign and enlightened, but Virginia is not impressed, since his peculiar extracurricular activities seem to supersede his divine guidance. Blu (Connie Jackson), the local postal clerk and environmentalist, shares that feeling. She already has a beef with Krishnamarti, so when Virginia’s frantic single mom Harriet (Connie Monroe) arrives, she reluctantly joins up to help “free” Virginia. This is the last straw for Virginia, and she flees again, leaving Harriet to relate to the Devotees the family’s dynamics in the amusing and revealing “Buddhist, Baptist, Jew.”
In the duet “Reincarnation,” Wishnoff’s groovy guru and Monroe’s uptight mother face off in a comical debate that reveals their differences and similarities. As Blu, Monroe offers up a heartfelt contemplation on her own familial angst in the touching “I Wonder,” while Navarro’s and Demi’s vocals resonate in the tender ballad, “Standing on a Star.”
Bryon Renison’s set transforms from a poster-splattered bus enclosure into Blu’s hippy-dippy trailer. Replete with a giant grinning golden Buddha positioned upstage, it complements the show’s joyful milieu. Projections of desert landscapes and a celestial night on an upstage curtain also help lend the proceedings an appropriate sense of time and place.
The Hudson Mainstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood.; Fri.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 3 pm; thru Dec. 8. www.onstage411.com/greatbeyond Running time: 85 minutes with no intermission.)
