Wanting Miss Julie

Reviewed by Lyle Zimskind
Loft Ensemble
Through May 8

If continued performances, adaptations and alternative interpretations of a play over the course of successive generations establish its “classic” status, then Swedish playwright August Strindberg’s shamelessly misogynistic Miss Julie cannot be denied that laurel.

The latest reconfiguration of this familiar drama is a brand new musical called Wanting Miss Julie that cleverly turns the 19th-century source material on its head. Yes, a life may come to ruin after the lascivious title character (Lindsey Newell) easily seduces her forbidden target, but it doesn’t happen the way you’d expect if you’ve got the original work in mind.

Book writer John Sparks and lyricist Patricia Zehentmayr have not straightforwardly adapted Strindberg’s Miss Julie, but instead created an original musical theater piece, with its own distinctive plot, characters and contemporary setting. Julie here is the impregnably protected 18 year-old (or so) daughter of Stoddard (Bart Tangredi), a billionaire who refuses to let her engage with the world at large. Her default companions are a quartet of black-clad imaginary friends about her own age, two male and two female, who perform for her amusement and reinforce her inclinations on demand.

John (Michael Armstrong Barr), the son of Stoddard’s gardener, has been put through Princeton and an MBA program by the old man, who has also played matchmaker for the young prodigy and his own personal assistant Christine (Sarah Claspell). As Wanting Miss Julie begins, John, paying a rare visit back to Stoddard’s Hamptons estate, is reunited with his childhood playmate Julie, who reminds him of a halting moment of sexual recognition they shared when they were kids and demands that he fulfill her longings for him now that they are together again. Reluctantly he obliges.

There are some good meaty stretches in Wanting Miss Julie, though they are surrounded by considerable excess fat. Much of the first act is dominated by corny laugh lines (laugh line: “Let’s hope he uses his head — the one on his shoulders!”), redeemed only by composer and musical director Jake Anthony’s strikingly sophisticated score.  Then, just before intermission, the show suddenly elevates; Julie and John hook up and Newell and Barr, alone on stage, expose their perilously conflicting dreams and complex post-coital emotions in an arresting extended duet, “Afterglow.” Some of the uninspired silliness returns after intermission (repartee: “Where’s Christendom? It’s in Illinois, right?” “You didn’t like school very much, did you?”), but so do the strong musical numbers featuring Strindberg’s three principals.

All in all, Wanting Miss Julie is mostly entertaining in its musical passages (“I’m still here FYI! But you won’t see me C-R-Y!”), with some especially dynamic moments delivered by the two leads. The larger group numbers are frequently enhanced by April Sheets’s simple but charming choreography. Barr gets to show off a richly idiomatic musical theater baritone, while Newell is strongest in rock-leaning numbers like “Waitin’ on You,” though she also successfully pulls off a couple of old-style show tunes, including the nimble “Boy Who Didn’t Get Away” (after offering her apologies to Judy Garland).

The spoken scenes are distinctly more flat (John to Julie: “I see right through the ‘bitch’ to the girl — She hurts!” or Christine to John: “You know where to find me when you need someone to tell you ‘I told you so!’”). Stoddard’s reason for refusing to let his daughter engage with the world is clumsily revealed and almost offensively stupid. John’s ability to see Julie’s imaginary friends by using virtual reality headgear is an extraneous device.

There’s not much of a set in this production beyond a few undistinguished pieces of furniture, mostly sitting upstage across from the unobtrusive but essential three-piece band. The show’s smart surprise climactic moment, incidentally, is not visible to audience members sitting on the near end of the producing Loft Ensemble’s unusually wide theater space.

With a little less filler material and some tighter dialogue and dramaturgy, Wanting Miss Julie could continue to evolve into a strong small-ensemble musical piece. We wouldn’t see this production a second time, but we’d certainly be interested in a revised version.

Loft Ensemble, 929 East 2nd Street (entrance on Vignes between 1st and 2nd), DTLA; this Fri.- Sat., 8 p.m.; then Sat.-Sun., 8 p.m;. April 9 through May 8. (213) 680-0392, loftensemble.com. Running time: two hours and 5 minutes with a 15 minute intermission.