Also this issue: Anniversary Party The Museum of American Glass at Wheaton Village celebrates 20 years of artistic wonders. -Robin Rice artquicks More stuff going on this week... Cities Without Citizens -Lori Hill An Artist's Workshop staged reading -Juliet Fletcher 10-Minute Play Festival -Andrew Parks Blue Man Group The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight A.L.T.: A Memoir Looking Over The President's Shoulder -David Anthony Fox

July 24-30, 2003

theater

Songs For A New World

by David Anthony Fox

It’s little wonder that today’s aspiring musical theater performers gravitate to the work of Jason Robert Brown, himself a rising Gen-Xer. The best of Brown’s songs are memorably tuneful, and evoke sentiment, charm and wit (sometimes all three simultaneously). Rarer still, each number is a dramaticule -- a miniature play that allows the interpreter to shine as singer and actor.

I'll confess that some of Brown's quirks annoy me. Too many songs are over-precious and steeped in minutiae: Initially winning, they wear out their welcome quickly, and make his work -- even in this relatively early stage of his career -- ripe for parody. He has a distasteful way of portraying women as needy and greedy.

My reservations aside, I recognize that Brown's talents are considerable, wide-ranging (he writes both music and lyrics) and mature -- even in Songs for a New World, a 1996 revue that brings together some 16 songs that Brown, then 20 years old, had composed previously.

Songs covers ground from Columbus ("On the Deck of a Spanish Sailing Ship, 1492") to a disgruntled Mrs. Santa Claus, ready to break free of her tiresome husband ("Surabaya Santa," a deft Kurt Weill parody that is the show's biggest hit).

This production of Songs, directed by Jay Wahl, offers a fine six-member ensemble cast. Sharon Sampieri and Jeremiah Downs are especially good, but the others score their points in performances that are nuanced and confident (though a few go into American Idol-wannabe overdrive that flatters neither singer nor material). Taken number-by-number, this is an enjoyable evening, all the more impressive because the participants are so young.

Unfortunately, Wahl isn't content to offer Songs as the cabaret entertainment that Brown created. He has also freighted the show with a half-baked concept -- something about America and its ubiquitous Dream -- that makes incoherent muck of elements from sexually promiscuous politicians to post-9/11 bathos. Some dialogue is added that is not by Brown -- it's amateurish, both in writing and delivery. Paradoxically, this concept, meant to offer additional coherence to Songs, does just the opposite. We become acutely aware that the songs work well individually, but don't serve as building blocks toward character development or plot. (Not Brown's fault -- they weren't meant to.)

So ignore the pretensions and enjoy this Songs for the best of what it is (and what it should be): a chance to sample the work of a gifted writer and a promising cast.

SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD

Through Aug. 1, Idle Contemplation Productions at The Playground at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-569-9700.