Yonge Road Theatricals & Goodman Theatre/Life After, e-book, music and lyrics by Britta Johnson, choreographed by Ann Yee, directed by Annie Tippe, CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, closes Could 10. Tickets right here.
Earlier than moving into the evaluate correct, I wish to categorically state that Britta Johnson is a blazing expertise, maybe even a genius. Only a few artists can efficiently create the e-book, music and lyrics for a theatre piece, and Johnson is considered one of these treasured few.
That being stated, her affecting little musical, Life After, ought to by no means have been reworked into the behemoth Broadway type present that it has develop into.
I noticed Life After at Berkeley Road Theatre in 2017, and I used to be profoundly moved. The story is intimate in scope, and supersizing the fabric simply buries it amidst the Broadway glitz and glitter.
Out of equity, nevertheless, a virgin viewers, so to talk, would possibly lap up the obese Life After, and judging by the post-opening response, many have. This current incarnation has been well-reviewed in some quarters and has clearly attracted completely satisfied clients.
Alas, I’m not considered one of them.
The Story
The plot centres round 16-year-old Alice (Isabella Esler) and the grief she experiences after the unintentional loss of life of her father Frank Carter (Jake Epstein).
She is consumed with guilt as a result of that they had had a vicious argument earlier than he left for a enterprise journey — considered one of many, as a result of Frank is a well-known self-help guru who has invented the idea of Transformotion, and he’s at all times on the street.
Frank had known as Alice in a while the day of the argument, and since she was offended, she didn’t reply. And now her father is lifeless.
Life After is about how Alice copes with the grief and the guilt. It additionally turns into a thriller that Alice has to resolve. Her father’s aircraft was leaving at 8 p.m., but his automotive crash was at 8:20 p.m. Why wasn’t he on the aircraft?
Alice is so wrapped up in her personal ideas that she is oblivious to the grief of her older sister Kate (Valeria Ceballas) and her mom Beth (Mariand Torres), and so tensions come up between them. Alice does get assist from her buddy Hannah (Julia Pulo), and her English instructor Ms Hopkins (Chilina Kennedy).
There are additionally the Furies who’re different characters as wanted, however predominantly ideas in Alice’s thoughts; (Kaylee Harwood, Arinea Hermans, and Zoë O’Connor).
The Manufacturing
Johnson’s music is the star of the present.
Life After is a sing-through theatre piece which is way harder to compose than a group of stand-alone songs. Her prodigious expertise permits her to create tuneful music that embraces the temper or second and wraps the characters in a cocoon of lovely melodies.
As for Todd Rosenthal’s set, Serafina Bush’s costumes, and Japhy Weidman’s lighting, their designs are what you’ll count on in an enormous Broadway-style musical.
Thus, Life After is now recognized by an enormous set that could be a cross part of the inside of a home, with a spiral staircase connecting the flooring. There may be additionally a rotating stage that reveals completely different rooms. The myriads of engaging costumes, particularly for the Furies, mirror the world of right now. The lighting is huge, that means at all times in your face, as a result of it’s continually altering and exhibiting off particular results.
Ann Yee has offered the choreography that’s actually motion quite than dance per se, however it does animate the stage. Veteran director Annie Tippe has completed a journeyman’s job shifting her actors up, down, and throughout the home in significant trend.
The unique single piano has now develop into a seven-piece musical ensemble with Johnson’s piano rating ballooned out by Lynne Shankel’s lavish preparations and orchestrations.
As for the performances, Life After is blessed by an uber gifted solid of American and Canadian artists who’re superb actors/singers. They will actually belt out a track. Notably robust are Mariand Torres (Beth the mom) and Julia Pulo (Hannah the buddy).
The Ending
Maybe probably the most egregious facet of this over-produced musical is that it goes past its pure ending.
On this expanded model, the top ought to come because the mom and daughters paint the wall of the daddy’s workplace. Alice has at all times been adamant that nothing of her father’s must be modified, however after hesitating, she joins them within the silence — her means of exhibiting that she is able to transfer on.
Then Kate begins to cry, the primary overt signal of grief that we’ve seen. All through the present, characters have sung about their grief each with anger and sorrow, however now we have now uncooked emotion.
Alice and Beth put their arms round Kate and one another. It’s a lovely and really affective second as they collectively come collectively of their grief.
What follows looks as if overkill. Sure, Alice, accompanied by the Furies, performs “Poetry”, probably the most lauded track from all variations of Life After.
Sadly, on this incarnation of the present, this scene has now develop into gratuitous. We all know that Alice has come to phrases along with her guilt when she picks up the paintbrush.
Closing Ideas
Regardless of a superb solid and a beautiful rating, Life After, because it has now develop into, is a quintessential instance that huge shouldn’t be at all times higher.
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Paula Citron is a Toronto-based freelance arts journalist and broadcaster who hosts her personal web site, paulacitron.ca. For over 25 years, she was senior dance author for The Globe and Mail, affiliate editor of Opera Canada journal, arts reviewer for Classical 96.3 FM, and dance previews contributor to Toronto Life journal. She has been a visitor lecturer for numerous cultural teams and universities, notably on the function of the critic/reviewer, and has been a panellist on COC podcasts. Earlier than assuming a full-time journalism profession, Ms. Citron was a member of the drama division of the Claude Watson Faculty for the Arts.
