Deeply Felt: “Girlstar” and “Avenue Q” (reviews)
Signture's Girlstar falls apart at the seams, while Avenue Q is all the better for them
Girlstar, Signature Theatre’s newest world premiere musical, calls to mind Frank Wildhorn’s Jekyll & Hyde in two key ways — and in neither case is that a good thing. The most obvious link is the fact that both shows center on a mad scientist who seeks to get ahead by concocting magic potions, wholly untroubled by the devastating cost to human life such scientific “advances” are causing.
Far worse, though, is that both shows squander perfectly good talent on such embittering work — they’re misbegotten from the story to the presentation. And just as the most recent revival of Jekyll & Hyde couldn’t be salvaged by a strong cast, Anton Dudley and Brian Feinstein’s Girlstar (
) is hard to recommend, even though it has a stellar cast all around, including two of D.C.’s finest musical theater veterans — Donna Migliaccio and Bobby Smith — and two up-and-comers, Desi Oakley and Sam Edgerly, who play would-be paramours Tina and Jeff.
Signature has billed the show as a cross between The Voice and Maleficent, and it starts with a cartoonish video prologue. As a child, music mogul Danielle Espere (Migliaccio) murdered her sister to extract her sibling’s musical talent, which she has preserved in the form of a glowing green liquid she keeps in a bowl. When her niece Tina seeks to become a pop star, Danielle decides she’s the right person to experiment with in hopes of creating a super-natural mega-star. Soon she’s transferred to Tina not only her dead sister’s glowing talent, but also the goo from other former aspiring pop stars who each possessed a talent superior to Tina’s — be it elastic moves or glass-shattering pipes.
It’s all an overly cynical and simplistic view of the music industry and what it takes to be a pop star in today’s world. And it could work — if it were played as parody, or if we were encouraged to laugh at the incredibly high camp value that Eric Schaeffer and crew have concocted. From Dudley’s wooden and cliched dialogue and lyrics, to some of Frank Labovitz’s over-the-top costume touches, it would help if the actors were instructed to be self-aware from time to time and wink at us, assuring us that, yes, that was meant to be a joke. That’s especially true with Lorin Latarro’s cheesy choreography, which is so night and day from Signature’s usual first-rate moves you can’t help but pray that it was all meant to be funny.
AS FUNNY AS IT MIGHT SOUND to the uninitiated, Avenue Q () is a touching, moving musical, despite the fact that it revolves around puppets. Director Allison Arkell Stockman has assembled a fine cast for Constellation’s first full-scale musical, and it helps that the musical is not just about the puppets, but the actors behind them. Some of the best moments come watching performers manipulate their felt-and-fuzz alter-egos as the puppets utilize Matthew McGee’s ingeniously designed props. If Katy Carkuff as Kate Monster doesn’t have the hardest work to do in this regard, she at least makes the most entertaining show of it, particularly by opening and holding a flip phone on a couple of occasions, as well as turning around a cassette mixtape made by her beau, Princeton.
What’s inspiring about Avenue Q is that you find yourself rooting for the puppets — and if you’ve never rooted for a puppet before, it’s a refreshing sign you’re not too jaded to find a little awe and wonder in the world, after all.
Avenue Q runs to Nov. 23 at Source, 1835 14th St. NW. Tickets are $20 to $45. Call 202-204-7760 or visit constellationtheatre.org.
Girlstar runs to Nov. 22 at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. Tickets are $40 to $101. Call 703-820-9771 or visit signature-theatre.org.
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