Margot Rose, Novi Novog and Larry Tuttle (Photo by Sherry Rayne Barnett)
Reviewed by Julyza Commodore
A Guest Production at the Skylight Theatre
Through March 8th
RECOMMENDED
Would you be able to reflect and answer what have been the best and worst days of your life? Written, composed and performed by Margot Rose, Unconditional: A Musical Memoir causes audience goers to think about that. Rose has grappled with a life-altering loss that rocked her world, and this is her brave retelling of it.
She and her lesbian partner are looking to have a baby; they strike gold with a donor, yet as life can offer such hope at times, tragedy also happens, and in Rose’s case, it rolls in like a crushing wave. Anyone who has gone through any deep loss would agree that healing is no easy feat, nor is it a linear experience. As they say, it comes in waves and everyone deals with losing a loved one in their own way. It’s rare and beautiful when a person is able to share how that grief has transformed them, and that’s precisely what Rose accomplishes in her musical memoir.
Featuring songs and with band members Melina Young, Novi Novogg, Justin Lottie and Larry Tuttle, the story doesn’t necessarily move along with just somber notes. With drums, guitar, violin and piano, it is neither a slow moving nor a dull show. It surely is an honest one, and a true reflection of the complicated experience that we have as human beings, where we may experience our sadness and anger in one moment, we may experience our happiness and joy in the very next one. This production reminds us that we are alive, flawed and simply trying our best with what we know.
Anne Kenny’s direction has brought Rose’s words and vision to life with vibrancy, honesty and deep emotion. I think it never hurts to be reminded of the beauty and meaning that comes from sharing sorrows and pain, with the larger aim of helping someone, similarly grieving as so many of us are, feel less alone. This, too, this sharing, is part of the healing process, and this production does an excellent job conveying, and possibly facilitating, a road to recovery.
Skylight Theatre, 1816 ½ N. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027. Thursday-Saturday at 7:30PM and Sundays at 3PM. 85 minutes with no intermission. https://ci.ovationtix.com/36419
