reviewvancouver: Songs for a New World

Not Another Musical Co-op’s production of Songs for a New World is a delightfully entertaining, even fascinating musical revue. Hardly musical theatre, there’s no consistent storyline, no scenery, save for a new coat of paint on the stage floor and a roughly constructed wooden platform, and what drama there is comes from the impassioned delivery of the show’s sixteen songs.

Despite a cynical thread running through most of the tunes, the show’s central theme is one of optimism. While a couple of songs do propound biting, tongue-in-cheek humour, most are tender ballads or hymns of personal reflection about ‘real’ people who have reached the lowest ebb in their lives and are intent on climbing back in contention.

It’s a very capable cast of Alison MacDonald, Jennifer Neumann, Jonathan Winsby and Daren Herbert who deliver Jason Robert Brown’s songs with spell-binding ardour; each bringing their own individual talent to the production.

Alison MacDonald gets to sing (what are for me) the most interesting songs in the show. Her first solo offering is the capricious “Just One Step” about a woman who is figuratively and literally on the edge after the husband “Murray” has lost interest in their marriage. Almost at the opposite end of the emotional spectrum is “Surabaya Santa” where MacDonald inserts herself in the role of a bored and libidinous Mrs Claus ready to divorce poor Santa.

Jonathan Winsby brings much of the stage machismo that Vancouver audiences enjoyed from his recent roles in Beauty and the Beast and Les Misérables. He puts his strong baritone voice to use with dramatic support from Jennifer Neumann in “She Cries” about a man who struggles with his decision to leave his pregnant fiancé. The pair team up again in the second act for a de facto sequel “I’d give it all for you.”

Ms Neumann’s earnestness shines through with her solo contribution, “Christmas Lullaby” – a pseudo-religious paean that wouldn’t have been out of place in the church upstairs. Daren Herbert leaves the audience transfixed with a heart-wrenching rendition of the ironically titled “King of the World” and led the company in the spunky “Steam Train” about a man determined to be a basketball star. Herbert ends the first act finale with his defiant declaration, “You don’t know me yet – but you will.”

While the solos were affecting and powerfully poignant the show’s best moments come from the ensemble performances; as with the production’s opening anthem “The New World.”

The production does have its failings, some coming from the limitations of the venue. Its small stage, having already to accommodate three musicians and their instruments, leaves space only for the most basic choreography. Nonetheless, this is assuredly a gutsy undertaking by a young theatre group in bringing to audiences unfamiliar songs by (to most folks) a little known composer.