The Company of Beau the Musical.( Photo by Valerie Terranova)
(Once again, Florida Theater On Stage is personally reviewing current shows playing this winter on and off-Broadway, many of which will be touring locally or mounted by a local company. Today, we start with the off-beat Beau the Musical, which closes January 4. Coming up over this month, reviews of Ragtime, Liberation, Chess, Oh Mary and Little Bear Ridge Road..)
By Bill Hirschman
You might shake your head if someone suggested you create a musical that melds country, rock and gospel in a basement temporarily converted into a honky-tonk – all telling how a young Southern man in a damaged family comes to realize and embrace his sexuality.
But off-Broadway’s Beau the Musical successfully spins from endless kick-ass energy to moving introspection and back to tongue in cheek humor.
Only playing through Jan. 4, the piece played in the West Village last summer and was playing to a full house mid-week last month when we saw it. Notably it felt like a social gathering with groups of patrons (perhaps returning fans) schmoozing at length before and after.
The premise is that successful country-western songwriter and singer Ace Baker (inhabited by a charismatic Matt Rodin) has returned to his favorite Nashville bar The Distillery for a gig to unveil his newest “more vulnerable” album. Baker’s songs take us episodically in flashbacks tracing his life from elementary school to young adulthood in Memphis where his self-discoveries began.
The journey, even in the upbeat moments, is suffused with its protagonist’s yearning for a sense of who he is and self-esteem.
His cause is helped when he begins to bond with his cranky, troubled but eventually caring grandfather whom he was told was dead, the titular Beau (Jeb Brown – Tony nominated for Dead Outlaw) who we later find out is gay.
No, it’s not a unique tale, so it doesn’t really evoke deep emotions, and there’s not a subtle moment in this heart-on-its-sleeve expedition.
But it’s elevated with the honest, earnest performances including those of other dramatic characters taken over by the fine back-up band members, all of whom have muscular voices to pair along with their fiddle, bass and keyboards.
The entire evening was conceived and written by Douglas Lyons with a dozen varied numbers with tuneful melodies and sometimes lovely / sometimes bland lyrics by Lyons and Ethan D. Pakchar.
Especially impressive was how the director/producers transformed the black box space at St. Luke’s Theater (née church, now a professional theater on Restaurant Row). The intimate Distillery (complete with a very busy operational bar) has a small thrust stage, a large barrel top in the center of the room where solos occur surrounded by patrons, and walls whose every inch is covered with bar memorabilia such as rusting license plates and liquor ads. This helps immeasurably and we doubt this would play very well in a proscenium stage.
The work which mixes dialog scenes with song after song gets muddy in the last few scenes and the easily predictable arc doesn’t always grab. But overall it’s an unexpected and undeniably entertaining evening.
Beau the Musical plays through Jan. 4 at St. Luke’s Theatre, 308 W 46th St.; running time 100 minutes with no intermission; Wednesdays through Mondays, often two-a-night except Saturdays; tickets $49-$114 (although there are BOGO $49 tickets); https://www.beauthemusical.com/.
Jeb Brown
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