¿POR QUÉ?

I have been trying to figure out sixty ways from Sunday’s opening of Los Otros just exactly how to approach a critique. The new one-act musical by composer Michael John LaChiusa (The Wild Party) and librettist/lyricist Ellen Fitzhugh (Grind) is essentially two sung-through monologues. For about 45 baffling minutes, The Woman (Michele Pawk), a white American, directly relates to us her, um, adventures with Mexicans, her two daughters and two sisters. Then the Man (Julio Monge), who is a gay, natural-born U.S. citizen of Mexican lineage, describes both his childhood in WWII and his relationship with a man who hoards expensive art. The result is something that would be expected at the Hollywood Fringe, not the Mark Taper Forum. Her solo was titled “Tres Nií±as,” his was “Dos Hombres,” but the show should have been subtitled, “Un Gran Signo de Interrogación” – one big question mark.

There are three questions I ask myself upon critiquing theater: What were they going for? Did they achieve it? Does it work? The answer for Los Otros is: I don’t know. I don’t know. No.

The musical lost me after five minutes. I could hear the actress speaking and singing, but nothing was happening. She just talked. Or talked-sung. Or sung. Or all three. I kept thinking how amazing it was that Michele Pawk actually memorized such non-sequiter storytelling and LaChiusa’s largely atonal recitative music (rarely is there a melody or an intact song – hence, no song list in the program). I just felt sorry for Pawk because the music does nothing to elevate emotion, basically because there isn’t much to work with in the libretto. I admire Fitzhugh’s clean lyrics, but when Pawk sang that “Birds look like pearls,” I thought, Did I hear that right? Birds look like pearls? Well, clearly it was a choice, because – wait, here it comes – Yep! It rhymed with “girls.” Ugh. It was so distracting that my mind wandered: Could birds look like Redwood burls?   Can birds act like churls? Birds look like merles, because they are birds, blackbirds, in fact. Then back to the stage. Focus, Tony, focus.

45  minutes later,   The Man comes upon the scene, but his musings were constructed no differently. But he didn’t lose me, because I was already lost. Even with Julio Monge’s sweet, sweet voice and engaging personality, there was no way to connect with these people; the show wasn’t really about them, it was about issues relating to the Mexican-American experience (I mean, c’mon, they don’t even have names). The Man then told of a life where people held him as an illegal alien. It doesn’t matter, really, because the way in which the stories were told was the most alienating part of the night.

Also distracting was Pawk’s singing voice, which can best be described as weak, almost as if she was straining. I was concerned that she was losing her voice, but her speaking voice was powerful. But La Chiusa really shined with period pastiches, and Bruce Coughlin’s orchestrations were amazing – I have always held him to be on par with Jonathan Tunick. Oh, and look at all of those colorful hats hanging from the ceiling of the theater. Wait, there’s also a chair hanging there. Back to the stage. Focus, Tony, focus.

There were some interesting moments as The Woman told us about feeding, hiring and sleeping with undocumented people, but the stories had the same theme: don’t judge these people by their skin color or citizenship status. And what is she doing picking up a Mexican woman from across the border to be her maid:IN A FRENCH SLIP?! And was it necessary to hire Ann Hould-Ward, one of the greatest costumers on Broadway? (Sunday in the Park with George.) How about some local Latino costume designers?

What a relief that reviewers were requested not to reveal the last scene, because I was almost ashamed to admit that whatever denouement had occurred went right over my head. I asked four strangers after the show how they perceived the ending. I received three diverse responses (all different than mine), but the fourth response was a shrug and ”Who cares?”

In the end, I had about ninety  minutes to meditate on one word: “Why?” I mean, I understand WHY this musical was commissioned by Center Theatre Group – Tony-nominated writers and director (Graciela Daniele), cheap to produce, politically correct topic – but WHY does it even exist? And does that beautiful desert landscape of set designer Christopher Barreca mean anything? I’ll have to read other reviews as soon as this is published to see if anyone got it.

The most mystifying part of the evening was that some audience members leapt to their feet at the end. Leapt! Were these friends of the cast and crew? Did they get something I didn’t get? Back to the stage. Focus, Tony, fo:Oh, wait, it’s over.

Why?!

photos by Craig Schwartz

Los Otros
Center Theatre Group
The Music Center’s Mark Taper Forum
ends on July 1, 2012
for tickets, call 213.628.2772 or visit CTG