Aynsley Bubbico and Emma Hunton (Photo by Ashley Erikson)
Reviewed by F. Kathleen Foley
The Colony Theatre
Through May 17
Michael Thomas Grant (Photo by Ashley Erikson)
The title of Millennials Are Killing Musicals playfully references a series of comical memes — stemming back some ten years or so — that placed the blame squarely on millennials for “killing” everything from linen napkins to sex.
Perhaps the most notorious example was a 2016 tweet from The Economist that plaintively pointed out that millennials simply weren’t buying diamonds, a trend that was destabilizing the world diamond market. Of course, that ludicrously reductive observation failed to reference the fact that millennials simply did not have the means for such luxury items, not to mention their increasing disenchantment with the capitalist status quo.
Now running at the Colony in Burbank, this world premiere musical exploits every trope of internet culture, from the common to the obscure. The show, which was written by Nico Juber (book, music, and lyrics), commences as three online computer “filters” (John Krause, Lana McKissack, and Mitchell Gerrard Johnson, glitzily attired in Jessica Champagne Hansen’s eye-catching costumes) gather to grouse about the alarming decline in social media usage among the young. On a quest to rectify the imbalance, these three otherworldly beings, who exist solely in cyberspace, set out to find an internet newbie, that rare individual whom they intend to convert to that new time religion — a social media junkie.
Enter Brenda (Emma Hunton), a single mother who works in HR but wants to be a serious writer. Brenda has never posted, liked or followed in her life, but when her pregnant sister Katrina (Diana Huey), a self-absorbed influencer who lives online and has hundreds of thousands of followers, moves in with her, Brenda is inspired to create her own online presence. Her new friend, the dauntingly well put-together and seemingly “perfect” Jake’s Mom (Aynsley Bubbico), is another aspiring influencer who charts Brenda’s path to online glory on the omnipresent internet site, Instacam.
Brenda’s new admirer Dylan (Michael Thomas Grant), a sweet-natured teacher at her daughter’s kindergarten, lives offline and IRL. He and Brenda are quickly involved in a promising new romance. But when Brenda takes a work trip to Hawaii, she meets fast-talking tech executive Nate (Krause), who teaches her that there’s “no time for creativity” in the hectic new online order. Swayed by Nate’s pie-in-the sky fulminations about internet wealth and fame, Brenda ghosts Dylan in favor of Nate — but her new relationship comes with disastrous surprises.
Millennials has all the fundamentals for success, starting with its accomplished design elements — Stephen Gifford’s set, Cricket Myers’s sound, Gavan Wyrick’s lighting, and most particularly Taylor Edelle Stuart’s exceptional projections. Under Anthony Lucca’s musical supervision, the strong-voiced cast sells their numbers like street hawkers at a Moroccan bazaar. And even though she is belatedly dropped into the action, Jennifer Leigh Warren’s character proves a real crowd-pleaser as Brenda and Katrina’s eccentric mother, a woman with a belt voice that could shatter glass.
Director Kristin Hanggi, a Tony nominee for Rock of Ages, effectively marshals her talented troops to make the most of their opportunities, scant though they may be. That’s because a loosely linked string of novelty numbers do not a musical make. Seriously lacking in cohesion and devoid of an emotional core, Juber’s show too often descends into silliness.
Such silliness is epitomized by songs like “I’ll Never Poop Alone Again,” sung by woebegone Brenda and Jake’s Mom, which refers to their lack of privacy as moms of young kids. More cursorily included numbers include “Santa Don’t Go” (It seems millennials have also killed Christmas), and “I Love You, Ryan Seacrest,” Katrina’s ode to her idol, performed while huge images of Seacrest flash upstage.
The first act’s closing number, “Pay the Algo,” — in which a villainous and all-powerful Algorithm (Grant) terrifies his “filter” minions with threats that they will soon be replaced by AI — is also random and bizarre. The Algorithm’s raison d’être —“Create the problem; Sell the solution; Monetize content; Repeat”— may be intended as a sweeping indictment of influencer culture yet seems more puerile than philosophical.
Millennials tries to paint the internet as a dangerous, socially isolating place — but the show is a thematic sprawl that, despite moments of humor and interest, is sporadically rendered and difficult to follow. I admit to having come of age in a pre-internet era, and that a younger generation may respond to my lack of appreciation for Millennials with the obvious rebuttal, “Okay, Boomer” — but at least that reaction is easily understandable and very much to the point.
The Colony Theatre, 555 N. 3rd St., Burbank. Fri.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 7 pm, Sat.-Sun., 2 pm; thru May 17. https://thecolonytheatre.org 2 hours, 30 minutes with intermission.
