Review: Inner Voices: Solo Musicals

(Jennifer Damiano Photo by Andy Criss)
One person expressing her innermost thoughts in song is the premise behind "Inner Voices: Solo Musicals" which I saw at the funky off-Broadway Zipper Factory Theater in New York. It's comprised of three commissioned pieces from composers Michael John Lachiusa (“The Wild Party,” Marie Christine”), Jenny Giering ("Songs for An Unmade Bed") and Scott Davenport Richards ("Ma Rainey's Black Bottom") in a concept developed by Artistic Director Paulette Haupt who was inspired by Alan Bennett's "Talking Heads" on PBS.
The first, "Tres Ninas" by Lachiusa featured a strong performance from Victoria Clark (most recently on Broadway in "Light in the Piazza" and "Urinetown") as she reflects on three separate incidents that shaped her life.
In the first, she and her two sisters assist a family of illegal immigrants they witness jumping off a train. "When people fall in front of you, don't we have an obligation?" she asks. They bring food anonymously, in what really is a dramatic game to the sisters, then the family vanishes in the night.
In the second vignette, Clark smuggles a young girl from Mexico into the United States to serve as a housekeeper for her and her two girls. Eventually Madelina leaves to marry and have a family of her own and Clark sings through a wide range of emotions.
The third snapshot in "Tres Ninas" has Clark as a hardened bartender who is passionate about burritos because there's not much else exciting in her life. After a night of drinking and flirting with some immigrants, she agrees to take the virginity from 18-year-old, Arturo. Drunk and afraid, she realizes that what she "saw as a lark was not for him." His friends watch and after, when she is leaving, she finds her car tires slashed. Arturo protects her and brings her home where she wonders, in librettist Ellen Fitzhugh's wonderful lyrics, "what has led to the life I've led?" and concludes that "I'm not to be trusted with myself."
This first portion of the program was by far the strongest, most polished and appealing of the three. I felt that it had potential to stand by itself in expanded form. Lachuisa's score, as always, was pleasing and challenging. Some confusion clouded the story as it wasn't clear right away whether we were seeing three tales from the same woman or one tale from each of the ninas. (Direction by Jonathan Butterell, Music Direction by Todd Almond)
The second work, Giering's "Alice Unwrapped" had a moving story about a young teen who finds herself trying to hold her family together after her father is declared missing in action and her mother, a church organist, has a breakdown. "She's checked out of our daily lives and left the rest to me," the talented Jennifer Damiano ("Spring Awakening") (pictured above)sings. She constructs an outlandish suit constructed of KELVAR™, duct tape and other materials to help her "fight my elemental fears." She eventually discovers that it is her younger sister Ellie, not she, who is the glue keeping the family together, and with her help, she begins to take the suit off one step at a time.
The storyline of this piece no doubt hit home with many, and the lyrics by Laura Harrington were thought-provoking, but I felt that the music never allowed Damiano to fully express the emotions of her character or the full range of her vocal capability. The melody seemed repetitive and only for a few moments seemed to take us deep enough to feel what Alice was feeling. (Directed by Jeremy Dobrish; Music Direction by Julia McBride)
The third component of the evening, "A Thousand Words Come to Mind" by Richards with a libretto by Michele Lowe gave us a sad, but humorous look at a mother's death through the eyes of her daughter. Barbara Walsh ("Company", "Hairspray")played the daughter who experiences a growing fascination with her mother's encounters with a long list of famous American authors. She struggles with the concept that her mother might have been important, that she might have mattered to important poeple. "Will that make her more important to me?" she wonders. What she reveals, though some top-notch acting by Walsh, is that it's she who feels unimportant and invisible. Lowe's lyrics were polished and made what would be a weak score on its own rather inconsequential to the telling of this story. (Directed by Jack Cummings, III; Musical Direction by John DiPinto)
Overall, the presentation was a worthwhile night at the theater.
Christians might be interested to know:
Contains sexually suggestive dialog
Contains offensive language
The Lord's name is taken in vain twice