****All the World's a Stage
Even (especially?) supposed strongholds of Christian conservatism
Elizabeth Stanley, Matt Rodin, Eliza Pagelle. Photo: Richard Termine
Some shows arrive as sleepers. Even given composer Adam Gwon’s stellar track record (multiple awards and fellowships, starting with 2009’s Ordinary Days), the production’s locale – one of Theatre Row’s rather dispiriting basement stages – doesn’t bode well. So kudos are due company and production director Jonathan Silverstein for commissioning, developing, and shaping this gem over the past 13 years.
The plot hinges on a stranger-in-town premise: We witness Ricky (Matt Rodin) palpably enjoying a community theatre production (it’s actually a bit of a flash-forward; all will be revealed).
The main story, set in 1999, starts with straight-presenting Ricky being called on the carpet by a school administrator, Dede – and let’s pause in awe right here, because she’s played by Elizabeth Stanley, whose usual habitat is Broadway (a golden-voiced Grammy Award winner, she’s a multiple Tony nominee). Stanley has calibrated her delivery exquisitely for this tiny, nearly bare space (four musicians sit behind an L-shaped partition onstage). When, late in the show, Dede finally lets loose – she’s questioning her hypocrisy (“I Don’t Ask”) – prepare to be knocked sideways. Stanley seizes her moment: she’s wrenching.
The school is located smack-dab in Evangelical Christian country (northeastern Pennsylvania), and Dede has family ties to the local megachurch. Anxious to retain his post as a new hire, Ricky plays it super-straight, going so far as to allude to an imaginary wife.
All bets are off, though, when he meets an out-and-proud bookseller the next town over: Michael (Jon-Michael Reese), described in the script as “unapologetically queer” (costumer Jennifer Paar provides all the necessary accessories: muscle shirt, beads, the works). Rodin, a fine singer, is somewhat hampered by the need to keep Ricky’s expressivity under wraps. Reese, likewise a strong vocalist, occasionally overreaches with some not fully mastered emotive effects.
Stanley’s bona fides being a given, the real discovery in this cast is Eliza Pagelle as teen rebel Sam, a misfit excruciatingly at odds in her holy-rolling community. Intent on winning a ticket out via a drama competition, Sam gloms onto the new teacher as if he were a life raft, which in many senses he is – even if Ricky is doing his best to submerge his true colors. Pagelle sings with passion and skill: it’s a safe bet that she’ll soon be ascending to bigger, higher stages.
Theatre Row, to May 10