A FASCINATING SUBJECT BOTH MOLD AND NEW
In 2019, antibiotic resistance contributed to almost 5 million deaths globally affecting everyone, no matter what age, race or financial status. Here in the States, more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur each year and more than 35,000 people die as a result. You would never think that somebody would make such a health threat the main theme of a musical. Leave it to the Scots: Composer and lyricist Robin Hiley, infectious diseases specialist Dr. Meghan Perry, and writer Becky Hope-Palmer intertwine the life of Nobel Prize winner Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin, with the urgent current threat.
Lifeline, which opened tonight at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre, is the interesting and entertaining outcome, and I would not have missed it just for its premise and uniqueness. Previously entitled The Mould that Changed the World, this musical is also a two-time Edinburgh Festival Fringe sell-out and has successfully toured to London, Glasgow, Atlanta and Washington DC. This new production, with Alex Howarth’s direction and choreography by Wayne Parsons, features different patients’ stories and a chorus of zealous New York-based healthcare professionals who also act and sing, a brilliant addition to the plot that kept the audience always in touch with the severity and reality of the problem.
Matthew Malthouse offers us a kindhearted and gregarious Alexander Fleming, uncomfortable with direct praise despite his brilliancy, tormented during the first World War by the limited resources he had to treat and evacuate the casualties as quickly as possible. Fleming was serving in France as a young Scottish Army doctor observing soldier after soldier dying from sepsis caused by their infected wounds. The antiseptics used killed more soldiers than the infections because they only eliminated the bacteria on the wounds’ surfaces. He tried to bring the carnage to attention but neither the Army nor the government wanted to hear about it.
Flash-forward to a modern day hospital where Jess (Kirsty MacLaren), another young doctor like Fleming, is caring for her dear friend Aaron (Scott McClure), a musician recovering from cancer treatment. They grew up together and love each other profoundly. A collage of tender projections takes us back to their happy childhood and adolescence. “Climb On”, an enthusiastic Scottish march, and “Rose of No Man’s Land”, a moving ballad, are a tribute to their feelings, both traditional tunes with Celtic and Gaelic accents, well executed, if not a bit too safe. “Stay with Me”, on the other hand, is heartbreaking, and MacLaren, who excels as the frantic, preoccupied doctor forced to be optimistic at all costs, gives us a powerful touching performance. McClure is unquestionably compelling as Aaron, showing us resilience and naiveté, hope and desperation, although his part was the most repetitive.
Back to the past: it’s 1918, the war is over, and Fleming returns to St Mary’s Hospital, the medical school he attended before the conflict; he is a married man but he seems to really enjoy the company of a Greek colleague, Amalia, played by Nicole Raquel Dennis, who many years later will become his second wife. “Waltz with Me”, an engaging, romantic, duet, marks their union. Dennis’s demure and charming take on Amalia’s character brings us back to a time when even female scientists had to be women first, in complete contrast with modern time Jess. Their voices are also opposed; Dennis’s suave, reassuring tones contrasted with the high, frantic notes MacLaren has to reach to convey her desperation. Both are delightful, although Amalia’s part — like Aaron’s — was also a bit too long because Fleming’s love life feels superfluous.
At St Mary’s, Fleming’s discovery of the powers of mold and penicillin is born, bringing joy, celebration, and needed hope. Robbie Scott plays an exuberant and extremely likeable Dr. Merlin Pryce, Fleming’s best friend and precious colleague, a Welshman who drew Fleming’s attention to a petri dish left unclean, noting that no bacteria surrounded the mold. His character highlights Fleming’s humanity. While Aaron and Jess are desperate to see if antibiotics can save him, Fleming reminds us that bacteria can develop antibiotic resistance whenever too little penicillin is used, when it is used for too short a period, or when it is used too often. Ms. Hope-Palmer successfully recounts the entire arch of this life-changing discovery, from being terribly needed, passing through its successful implementation, and ending on how we made it dangerous, making it the star of the show. Completing the cast, Mari McGinlay, Sarah Haddath, Graham Richardson and Richard Lounds (who also helped with the writing and production) are as talented and dedicated as the rest of the ensemble.
The modern day part of the story could definitely be shortened, the stage design could use more creativity and the songs need some revisiting to make them more unique, but Lifeline certainly entertains, educates, and is superbly interpreted. I walked out of the Pershing Square Signature Center with a heavy heart but more love for the Scots. I also contemplated how upset Fleming was when he heard of Coghill and Moyer patenting penicillin’s production in the US. I checked the exact quote as soon as I got home: “I found penicillin and have given it free for the benefit of humanity. Why should it become a profit-making monopoly of manufacturers in another country?” For that reason — unbridled idiotic human greed — we keep abusing a miracle cure like antibiotics.
photos by Andrew Patino
Lifeline
The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre
at The Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W. 42nd Street, Jim Houghton Way
Tues-Fri at 7:30; Sat at 2 & 8; Sun at 2
ends on September 28, 2024
for tickets, visit Ovation Tix
for more info, visit Lifeline Musical