Musical: A New Brain

I want to give a biased review of a musical that my wife is involved in, called A New Brain. This means that even before seeing the show for the first time, the soundtrack was played on repeat at home. So far I’ve seen it twice, once on opening, and once with friends. I have to say, from just the soundtrack alone, I was not a fan of the music, and I thought it was going to be really cheesy. Turns out, I just did not have the right context to piece everything together, and as I was listening to the songs in isolation, without having seen how they are strung together, it was kind of fun to guess what the story would be about. And after watching it, I loved it!

It's classified as an Off-Broadway show. Broadway shows are the ones that are famous internationally. This one is in Brooklyn, relatively close to where we live, and I’d say only locals have heard of the Gallery Players.

The main character Gordon is a struggling artist whose job is to write songs for a children's TV show that stars a frog named Mr. Bungee, a job he sees as degrading and gets in the way of his ambitions to write songs of his own. He sees the frog as his tormentor, and things take a turn for the worse as he starts to feel ill…

Just a small delicious snippet from an early scene, sung by Gordon’s vision of Mr. Bungee.

Mis-ter Bun-gee IS a-qua-tic AND! des-pot-ic.
Mis-ter Bun-gee’s oc-e-an-ic and sa-tan-ic.
Mis-ter Bun-gee’s said to be tyrannical at times,
And Mis-ter Bu-ngee aaaaaallll----ways rhyyyyyymes!

Is he seeing things? One wonders if the frog was chosen just to make this rhyme, it’s just too good.

It's a recent musical, and is based off of a book with the same title, which I am now curious about. I just reread the theater website which mentions that this is an autobiographical account, and to me that makes this all the more intriguing.

The original score calls for a larger band, but this production was constrained and had to make do with much fewer instruments, down to keys, piano, drums, vibraphone, and cello. The piano takes center stage, and in various key parts, the lovely cello melody takes over, supporting the singing cast of course. And that lovely cello is played by my wife, who does a great job! On the opening I heard some audience members showering her with praises as well, it was very nice to see.

The theater is small, so you really feel very close to the cast, in some cases you feel you almost make eye contact. That can send a bit of chills too, which is great. You can't get that in a Broadway musical unless you get really pricey seats!

The overall production is very enjoyable, and the cast is talented. There’s a few things to be desired in terms of sound balance, but I don’t think it detracts from it much. The staging and choreography is also fun to watch, and just flows smoothly as the scenes go by.

Even if you can’t see this one, it might be worth picking up the book. I know I will. And if you happen to be in New York and looking for things to do in the next few weeks (until February 18), might I suggest taking a gander at The Gallery Players’ Production of A New Brain?

---