City of Angels

Musical (1989)
Book by Larry Gelbart
Music by Cy Coleman
Lyrics by David Zippel

With Phil Tayler (Stine), Ed Hoopman (Stone), Jennifer Ellis (Gabby, Bobbi), Leigh Barrett (Donna, Oolie), J.T. Turner (Buddy Fidler, Irwin S. Irving), Samantha Richert (Carla Haywood, Alaura Kingsley), Meghan LaFlam (Avril Raines, Mallory Kingsley), Tony Castellanos (Pancho Vargas, Lieutenant Munoz), Patrick Varner (Del Dacosta, Peter Kingsley), Michael Levesque (Werner Kriegler, Luther Kingsley), Damon Signletary (Studio Guard, Big Six, Dr. Mandril), Margarit Martinez (Studio Guard, Sonny), Davron Monroe (Jimmy Powers), Sarah Korfeld (Angel City 4, Margaret), Elise Arsenault (Angel City 4, Anna), Andrew Tung (Angel City 4, Officer Pasco), Brandon Milardo (Angel City 4, Harlan Yamato)

The plot of an embedded film story, and the plot of the wrapper story involving the writing of the film, are deeply interconnected in this musical about film writers, producers and their products.

Stine (Phil Tayler) is concocting a murder mystery thriller featuring Stone (Ed Hoopman) as the sleuth. He has to deal with Buddy Fidler (J.T. Turner), the producer of the film, who constantly takes exception to his ideas. Meanwhile, Stine is vagabonding amorously with Buddy’s secretary, Donna (Leigh Barrett), while his wife, Gabby (Jennifer Ellis), is far away on another coast. Working out his own neuroses on Stone and the other characters, Stine demonstrates that there is a lot of back and forth between writer and characters, exhibiting how interwoven the process of filmmaking is.

Most of the actors have dual roles – in the Hollywood wrapped narrative and in the embedded film story – making for a sometimes knotted tale requiring some work to unravel.

A lot of talent went into writing this musical. Larry Gelbart, the genius behind TV’s long running hit M.A.S.H. (1972-1983) wrote the book and Cy Coleman, noted musical composer (Little Me, On The Twentieth Century, Sweet Charity) wrote the score. Despite that, the effort seems to have resulted in something which feels a bit stylized, a little worn and not as witty as it might be. David Zippel apparently won the Drama Desk Award in 1990 for Best Lyrics for this show, but, based on what I heard, I wonder what the competition might have been.

Spiro Veloudos, the artistic director of the excellent Lyric Stage, has brought many great musicals to life, often with superlative results. This one feels not as energetically successful as some of those others, though there are moments that shine through.

The support quartet, the Angel City 4 (Brandon Milardo, Sarah Kornfeld, Elise Arsenault, Andrew Tung), that introduces the show and enters at odd points to do its thing – is lively, harmonically tight and very entertaining. They’re not omnipresent, but when they do appear it is a most welcome diversion.

Jennifer Ellis, who plays Gabby and Bobbi, is a bright light. Her solos stand out as musically rich and dramatically evocative.

Phil Tayler, who plays the writer, Stine, and Ed Hoopman who plays the sleuth, Stone, have two bright moments together at the end of each act in the energetic and appealing duets “You’re Nothing Without Me” and the reprise “I’m Nothing Without You.”

Several cases of miscasting compromise the general effort. That well-intentioned effort is noble, but not quite energetic enough to carry the narrative across its somewhat belabored existential divide.

– BADMan