Swing!
Reviewed by Stephen Fife
John Lant/Write Act Rep
Through May 26
Regarding Swing!, the new musical by Michael Antin having its World Premiere at the Brickhouse Theatre in North Hollywood, I have good news and bad news. I’m going to start with the good news.
The cast of this show is much better than you would expect from such a barebones production in an out-of-the-way theater space. The show tells a story of post–World War II America, in which men return home from fighting on various fronts. Women have been doing the men’s factory jobs for the last two years, but now there is a move to return to the “normality” of peace time. The stage action takes place in Baltimore’s Germantown section. One of the interesting aspects of the show is seeing German-Americans deal with some lingering uneasiness about needing to prove how American they are, while still preserving their German customs.
The show revolves around Adrianna, a Sicilian-American woman married to Butch, a returning German-American soldier. As played by Heather Rose, she looks like an Amazonian version of the actress Elizabeth Moss. She has an easygoing way about her onstage, and she conveys an emotional sensitivity mixed with a hard-earned self-respect that she refuses to compromise. Her character has bonded with the other women on her shift at the metal plant where she’s been working since Butch has been away. Now that he’s back, it’s expected that he’ll take back his factory job while she returns to being a housewife.
But Butch (Godfrey Flax) has a serious case of PTSD, as well as survivor’s guilt from the death of his best buddy. He’s dissatisfied with everything his wife does, and he messes up at the factory to the degree that Adrianna takes back his job. Denied anything close to affection by her husband, Adrianna finds it elsewhere with a German-American woman doctor, Janine (Courtney King). But lesbian love was against the law then, and after Butch stumbles upon their lovemaking, the plot definitely thickens.
As stated before, all the major roles are well-played. (Special mention goes to Richard Warren, who does a memorable job with the character of Fritz, a churlish German-American baker at whose café much of the action takes place.) All the actors have capable singing voices as well, and some are even better than that. But that brings me to the aforementioned bad news.
Without exception, the songs are execrably bad. Often it feels like a competition between the music and the lyrics for which is worse. Usually the lyrics win, with couplets like: “It cuts me like a knife/Will she be my wife?” Even sung by one of the better singers (Flax’s Butch), these by-the-numbers rhymes are an embarrassment. Since Michael Antin wrote both music and lyrics, there is only one place to lay the blame.
I gather that this is the latest in a series of musicals about the same German-American family and their journey through the years in America. I have not seen any other installments, so I have no idea if the no-talent songs here are typical of the series or much worse. My advice would be to ditch the songs altogether, which are like lead weights, sinking the intriguing book. Even though I don’t like the current resolution, Antin has a fascinating story and some memorable characters. I think they deserve better than to be dragged down by these howlingly dreary and derivative attempts at musical numbers.
The Brickhouse Theatre, 10950 Peach Grove St., North Hollywood; Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through May 26. www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4225661. Running time: 100 minutes with one intermission.
