Somewhere In Between
Florida Festival of New Musicals
Book, Lyrics & Music by Alan Becker
Directed by Roy Alan
Musical Direction by Ned Wilkinson
Starring Tim Perez, Tay Anderson and David Paul Rowan
These comments are based on a developmental reading. The final script may be significantly different.
It’s musical. It’s a love story; the protagonist is confused about which team he’s playing for, but here’s the real twist: we see the ending! The usual format for this Florida Festival of New Musicals is: run the first half of the show, then leave us guessing as to the end “so as not to spoil the surprise.” We know Juliet won’t make the bows; but we still go see her, right?
OK, I’m ranting, so what’s going on in THIS story? Benjamin (Rowan) dates Kate (Anderson) in a small town. He’s the town librarian, her dad is the local politico, and then mysterious Travis (Perez) shows up. Now we are into the story and the “I want,” and “I am” music is all in the right place, and there’s some interesting plot action as well. Kate’s dad Roger (Dave Thome) is running for mayor on the right-wing ticket. His campaign pledge is popular; he wants to get the controversial books out of the hands of those who are not yet set in their politics. This enrages Ben, and when Travis asks to shoot some sunsets from the library roof, the guys discover they have a LOT in common. Then they get one good night and couple of good duets before Kate is dragged into the confusion. As musicals go, there’s a good dose of plot, and it’s quite engaging. I doubt it will play in Dubuque, but the local audience enjoyed it and hopefully we will see the entire mysterious first act. Young love and ancient politics make for good bedfellows.
