A Class Act

Music and Lyrics by Edward Kleban
Book by Linda Kline and Lonny Price

With Rachael Balcanoff (Lucy), Ross Baum (Ed Kleban), Marie Eife (Mona/Dance Captain), Brian Scannell (Charley, Marvin Hamlisch, Dr. Nodine, Jean-Claude Chevray), Eddie Shields (Bobby, Michael Bennett), Robbie Simpson (Lehman Engel), Tessa Hope Slovis (Felicia Delgado), Anya Whelan-Smith (Sophie)

Edward Kleban (Ross Baum) was the lyricist of A Chorus Line, one of the most phenomenally successful Broadway musicals of all time. Before he did that, however, he had a long run of not having much success as a composer or lyricist. And after A Chorus Line there was not too much obvious success either. He died of cancer at the age of 48 in 1987.

This show, an amalgam of songs composed by Kleban compiled into a narrative by book authors Linda Kline and Lonny Price to illustrate the trajectory of his life, is full of warm musical surprises. Kleban was not only a highly competent lyricist, but his music is inventive and interesting.

While bringing together many of these interesting and innovative songs, A Class Act also illustrates how Kleban’s affecting but difficult personality made it difficult for him to produce them more successfully. Clearly, on the merits of the words and music alone, he should have had far more success than he did. But, apparently, his neuroses and associated abrasiveness stood in the way.

His life story is fairly straightforward. He had a close relationship with a woman named Sophie (Anya Whelan-Smith) who remained an important force in his life, but with whom romantic involvement ended somewhat early on. But the show emphasizes the importance of their bond and the nature of the honest feedback she gave Kleban. He also had a close, intimate and continuing relationship with a woman named Lucy (Rachael Balcanoff).

His continuing work with a musical-writing workshop (at BMI) and the companionship that group offered provides an important focus.

The show is cast as a series of flashbacks from a memorial service for Kleban and traces his life and career chronologically while evoking the general sense of both his genius and neurosis.

The production is lively and exhilirating and there is much talent on display here. Most of the cast seems quite young, but some of them are very accomplished and compelling performers.

As Kleban, Ross Baum is truly superb. He has an agile grace that demonstrates itself in dance and gesture and his singing is clear and articulated. He also plays piano in some of the pieces, and though he is competent, this is not his strongest suit; nonetheless, it represents a nice addition. (This polyvalent talent called to mind Hershey Felder’s equivalent display of musical and dramatic capacities in his recent exploits in Boston: Maestro: Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin Alone.) He is also a fine actor, conveying the complex layers of Kleban’s personality with appropriate combinations of humor, irony and anxiety. His portrait is wry, but penetrating. Overall, it is a very successful depiction.

Rachael Balcanoff as Lucy also has a striking stage presence. She moves with confidence and grace and sings beautifully. And though her opportunities to create a rich character are somewhat limited here, she carries those off with warm and candid efficacy.

Any Whelan-Smith as Sophie offers a vivid depiction of Kleban’s lifelong love and devoted friend. Whelan-Smith’s lush speaking voice is perfect for the role and she provides a compelling sense of this noble woman’s compassionate commitment to the emotionally complex Kleban.

The rest of the young cast very capably rose to the challenge of Kleban’s unique music and the choreography that accompanied it here.
Along with that lively choreography, direction and musical direction were inventive and expertly done.

– BADMan