Matt Murphy
Not often has rock ‘n’ roll appeared and sounded as boring and tedious because it does within the unusual Broadway mess that's Virtually Well-known (Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, reserving to April 9, 2023). That is odd, because the musical relies on the favored Oscar-winning movie, written and directed by Cameron Crowe, who additionally wrote the e-book and lyrics for the stage present (music and different lyrics by Tom Kitt).
Semi-autobiographical, it options teenage journalist William Miller (Casey Likes) as he wheedles his manner, by faking being a lot older on the cellphone, into following a dysfunctional rock band referred to as Stillwater to make his writing debut in Rolling Stone in 1973. The consequence, on stage, is wince-inducing—a leaping, sing-songy, wishy-washy, toothless, sanitized, and humorless model of what that period of rock ‘n’ roll was.
In Virtually Well-known’ thoughts, as its blurb guarantees, “William is thrust into the rock-and-roll circus, the place his love of music, his eager for friendship, and his integrity as a author collide. Virtually Well-known is a spirited story of fandom, household, and the unforgettable characters you’ll meet alongside the best way.”
The musical is none of these issues. On the finish, somebody says how a lot enjoyable it has all been. Actually, it hasn’t. William has had a constantly boring, dreary time on the highway with Stillwater. We don't see him taking or having fun with medicine. We don't see him having fun with a great deal of intercourse. We don't see him doing a lot journalism. We see these acts being implied, however simply when issues may get fascinating, the lights exit, simply as our hero appears–effectively—overwhelmed or plain confused. The musical drifts listlessly from scene to scene, freed from any narrative momentum.
Nonetheless, it additionally represents a form of theatrical first, the place you might be rooting for the character on stage who is meant to be the sq., the joy- and wildness-killer, William’s mother Elaine (Anika Larsen). Larsen has the present’s greatest songs and greatest traces, and the one second value cheering is when she tells Stillwater’s lead singer Russell Hammond (Chris Wooden) to not solely return her son residence, but additionally to not damage him or lead him astray. “Sure,” you suppose—when actually, you need to be rooting for William to be led as far astray as attainable.
William simply appears too hapless, too acted-upon, an excessive amount of of a drip to care that a lot about. It’s one factor to current him as a candy, music-loving child whose innocence and good-heartedness will finally be rewarded as he negotiates a supposed nest of vipers. However he simply appears clueless and boring, and missing any of the essential expertise to be even a mild-mannered journalist.
The legendary scribe Lester Bangs (Rob Colletti, excellently snarky) often pops up on the facet of the stage to remind the teenager to be a journalist; to not fall for the schmoozing, to really ask some questions, to get the story. However William reveals himself totally incapable of doing so, over and over. Certainly, his not getting the story as a result of he simply needs everybody to love him is performed as low-key heroic and cute.
Casey Likes, left, and Rob Colletti in “Virtually Well-known.”
Matt Murphy
The anti-journalism fervor stirred by Donald Trump and his acolytes over the previous couple of years is repeated and recycled endlessly in Virtually Well-known. William’s nickname from the band is “The Enemy.” It's stated playfully, however meaningfully and with an edge. William doesn’t get up for himself, doesn’t observe any of Bangs’ metaphorical shaking-by-the-collar to do his job, and falls in line to be a form of passive bystander pleased to be across the band.
Round this critic, the viewers groaned in settlement when one character talked about journalistic reporting as one thing to be suspicious of. Perhaps fact-checking in magazines has modified since Crowe’s time—however one line the place a Rolling Stone fact-checker supposedly accepts a flat denial of every part in a bit as a purpose to nix it's laughable.
The band itself can be freed from any rock ‘n’ roll charisma, and though they're meant to be in battle—concerning the quantity of stage and fame-time one member has over one other—the performing is so cartoonish and the script so leaden it by no means flares into something approaching actual aggression or rigidity. Similar to William, though bodily older, the bandmates appear to be boys masquerading as males.
The identical vibe of passionless lifeless weight attaches itself to the present’s tried love triangle, between William, Russell, and the supposedly mysterious Penny Lane (Solea Pfeiffer). Penny Lane is meant to be Virtually Well-known’ Nico—the last word, alluring rock muse and hanger-on. What's her actual title? Nobody is aware of! How does she bewitch all who fall into her path? Nobody is aware of! How does she have such model, wit, and style? Nobody is aware of!
In reality, Penny Lane looks like an offensively underwritten straight man’s masturbatory fantasy—passive, unvoiced, a totem of intercourse enchantment, and never a lot else. Within the stage present, there is no such thing as a enigma about her, she simply form of drifts about in dollar-store hippy garb. When her story is revealed on the very finish, it doesn’t actually change something, or land with emphasis.
Virtually Well-known is a type of musicals the place phrases and songs repeat themselves for about two and a half hours, after which, instantly within the final 10 minutes, the manufacturing rouses itself from its personal stupor for an enormous, welcome bang of a finale. “The place have you ever been till now?” you suppose as issues lastly click on into gear. We cheer as William Miller has his first rock ‘n’ roll second, leaping and head-banging throughout the stage to just accept the inevitable standing ovation. Too dangerous this burst of life occurs exterior the story, and much too late to save lots of the present.