Theater Review—

Sherman Is Going With

A Musical Opening

By Julie Stern

SHERMAN — Sherman Players have chosen to open their 2003 season with a pair of one-act musicals by Alan Menken, Alan Brennert and David Spencer.

Mr Menken won a bunch of awards for his more famous musical, Little Shop of Horrors. Like that story about Audrey the ungrateful rubber plant, Weird Romance – the opener now in production at Sherman Playhouse – also dabbles in what its authors like to call “speculative fiction.” That is, both plays involve white coated scientists whose laboratory experiments turn automatons into beautiful young women – or something like, using the device as an excuse to explore various social and psychological disconnects.

The first play posits a world in which traditional advertising has been banned, so that product placement and celebrity endorsements have become essential in keeping brand names popular. Tony Saracino plays Isham, an aggressive industry mogul who, with the help of an earnest technocrat (Steven Yudelson), comes up with a plan to morph the timid ego of a homeless bag lady (Missy Slaymaker-Hanlon) into the lissome but lifeless robotic body christened Delphi (Jessica Esposito), thereby creating a hybrid celebrity dazzling enough to capture public attention but docile enough to obey Isham’s direction.

When Isham’s son Paul, played by director Christopher Rich, falls in love with the new creation, the bag lady and the robot interact in ways Isham never intended, with results that are totally unexpected.

In the second play, Mr Saracino is the dedicated scientist who is trying to re-create history by summoning up holographic images out of the past, at the expense of his deteriorating relationship with his own wife, played by Jacqueline Gaudet.

Again science spins out of control when, before his disbelieving eyes, a young girl is born and develops into a beautiful woman to whom the scientist is powerfully attracted.

Each play is punctuated by more than a dozen musical numbers by Menken and Spencer, performed by live singers to a taped background. Unfortunately these tunes are not nearly as memorable as Little Shop’s, and they tend to make the plays last rather a long time.

The individual actors work hard at what they are doing, and Newtowner Yudelson has excellent stage presence.

However, the show could use some judicious cutting, a sign that it is always incredibly difficult to direct and play a major role at the same time.

(Performances continue at Sherman Playhouse – behind Sherman Firehouse at the intersectios of routes 37 and 39, through May 3. Call 860-354-3622 for ticket and reservation details.)