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For another week, theres a musical mother-and-son act in midtown, though the Encores!
Now, two decades onand after anOff Broadway runat the Atlanticthe project is palpably personal.
She sings like Ginger Rogers dances.
And Jamess suave, deceptively mutable and poignant baritone is a beautiful complement for her.
Hes playing a PR man of theMad Menera and persuasion, and his voice fits the part.
Sometimes its all pleasant surface.
Despite all that vocal brillianceand the leads real chemistrythe show evokes a specific kind of quietly disheartened sigh.
(Everyone my parents knew drank, drank, drank, drank; Lucas told theTimes.
You were thought to be a pill if you didnt.)
The shows imagery goes deep-sea diving along with them.
Two people stranded at sea / Two people stranded are we sing Joe and Kirsten as we begin.
Kirsten joins him merrily: Two dolphins breakin a wave / Two dolphins right to the grave.
Its music holds more ambivalence than its message.
Theres a voluptuousness in Guettels songs, but director Michael Greif never fully leans into it.
His staging feels inhibitingly tidy, despite Joe and Kirstens passionate freefall.
Theres something particularly depressing about plastic flowers on stage, and the nursery is full of them.
We should fear well be hit with flying mud.
Its cool, practicaland undermining.
Especially given the very thing Kirsten admits to craving: danger.
I hunger for more.
Days of Wine and Rosesis at Studio 54.
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