There was so much to be excited about before heading into Gleeam – the Glee / Scream Mash-up Musical written by Andrew Lloyd Baughman with lyrics by Phil Close and directed by Emily Jablonski.  First of all, the advanced artwork was fun and clever.  The iconic loser “L” now holds a menacing knife!  How cunning!  Secondly, the idea was how-can-you-miss?-perfect: two well-recognized, well-received  high school memes thrown together to create one  fantastic pot of crazy zaniness.  Hilarious!  Thirdly, the venue (Le Poisson Rouge) is sexy and spooky all at the same time, glowing red against oceans of black.  “This is gonna be good,” I thought to myself as I took my seat and waited – I’ll say it – gleefully … while taking in the gorgeous backdrop done by talented artist Jared Davis.

It didn’t take long, however, to realize that Gleeam was actually not going to live up to its advanced hype.

Backdrop by Jared Davis

The story is thin, but that’s not really the worst part.  Basically we find the Glee kids (their names removed, their stereotypes inserted, so we’re left with characters called “Slutty Slut”, “Wheelchair Kid”, “Gay Kid” etc.) going about their business in the Scream world, where one by one they start getting picked off in gruesome and bloody ways. It’s predictable.  Okay … I’ve seen flimsier plots.

There were some technical difficulties and some characters had to deal with terrible static coming through their head mics, but the actors gamely navigated around those issues – at least during the performance I attended.  So that wasn’t really the worst thing either.

A number of jokes either fell flat or were so steeped in fan-lore that it required too much dot-connecting, leaving the audience feeling left out.  How do I know?  Because the venue is cabaret-style seating and it was easy enough to read the faces of fellow audience members.  Throughout the short show I saw many people who looked confused, or far too happy (by contrast) to see the waitress arrive with their soup.  Food should not be the highlight of your theatre experience.

Gleeam didn’t actually make much use of the synergy you’d expect would be at its disposal by combining two hugely popular franchises, which is a shame.  There was so much potential here and much of what could have been brilliant parody was left to flounder in the shallow end of  head-scratching mockery.

But here’s my real problem with Gleeam.  There were two particularly polished moments in the show that elevated the entire production to a level which it just couldn’t maintain – one, the duet “Gay Enough For Love” between Sensitive Jock (Harv Lester) and Gay Kid (Jase Parker) and the show-stopping “Black Don’t Crack” sung by Black Girl (Justine Hall backed up by Phillip McLeod, Patrick Prebula and Brad Rakushin) which brought down the house.  Moments like this made it clear that the team behind Gleeam had the goods to deliver … so why did the rest of the show look like it was trying to catch up to those two breakout moments?

It’s unnerving to know that a show could be better than what it is.  It’s disappointing to watch a cast of extremely talented people working with material that’s not giving them enough to shine.  It’s frustrating to know that a theatre company which already brought one mash-up to the 2010 Capital Fringe (Carrie Potter at the New Moon Prom) wouldn’t have arrived on the NYC Fringe scene this year with a tightly produced show worthy of its namesakes.

Personally I’d love to see this show go through a few more tweaks – there’s way too much potential in the material for it to not rise to the height it deserves.  That the cast is talented is undeniable, and the songs by Phil Close were clever, funny and thoroughly enjoyable. Plus, all the begging-to-be-mocked plot lines are there.  In the end, however, rather than pop and sizzle the whole thing ran sadly and slowly down the wall like a carelessly tossed Slushie. To quote Gleeam itself:  “Sometimes a mash-up combines two great tastes into something downright awful … and everyone hates it.”

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Gleeam
The Landless Theatre Company
Writer: Andrew Lloyd Baughman, with Lyrics by Phil Close
Director: Emily Jablonski

1h 15m
VENUE #15: Le Poisson Rouge
Fri 26 @ 3:45

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• Drowning Ophelia: She Gets On Swimmingly (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Legacy Of The Tiger Mother: 4 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (Times Square International Theater Festival 2012)
• 3 Ghosts By Pipe Dream Theatre Productions
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There’s hardly a person out there who hasn’t been touched by a self-actualization movement of one type or another – be it a seminar, a book, a class or a friend whose life has changed and wants to share the experience (or worse yet, has a quota to fill). We’ve all seen it from The Forum to The Secret to est and everything in between.    Of course, the thing that makes it so seductive to millions of people is that there’s a glimmer of Truth to it all, shaken (not stirred) with a full jigger of Hope.

Which is why, if you wandered into The 
Laurie 
Beechman 
Theater not knowing what to expect you might assume you’ve stepped into any one of the hundreds of motivational seminars going on around the city – so earnestly is Geoffrey Decas touting the benefits of following the path of The Momentum.  So convincing is he, in fact, that through your laughter you’ll have moments of “hey, that’s actually true” and “well, he’s got a point there” and “wow, I’ve felt that way”.  Thing is, we’ve all felt isolated, lonely, depressed, no good, shoved aside, glossed over, ruled out, unnecessary, worthless, voiceless (um, stop me at any time here).  And we’re all searching for that one thing that will give us purpose, put a spring in our step, a gleam in our eye, light the way, seal the breach, patch the hull, start the motor, pay for the check, and tuck us into bed.  So, if something – anything – makes that promise  . . . what harm can it do to give it a whirl?  So it’s four easy payments of more than we can afford . . . so what?  If it works, the benefits are priceless.

Decas, Seavey and Killebrew ride The Momentum (photo by Max Ruby)

The three guides who lead us through The Momentum are also the brilliant writers behind it.  Geoffrey Decas, Boo Killebrew and Jordan Seavey have fine tuned the business of self-help into an art; they’ve observed this industry and tossed it back in a way that captures it perfectly yet still winds up being hilarious.

Under Lee Sunday Evans’ direction Decas, Killebrew and Seavey each bring a crazed edge to their performance that hovers right behind them – never overshadowing their presentation or their actions yet never wandering far from their wild-eyed stares either.  They’ve mastered the art of blurring the line between homage and parody so skillfully that simply by “getting it” the audience is made to feel smarter after the show; no small feat in an arena these days when so much comedy depends on dumbing things down for cheap and dirty laughs.

Which brings me to my second point.  While the first half of the performance is filled with good -sized laughs, the second half is a revelation.  I’ve been to plenty of shows that have made me laugh, and a few that have brought me to tears, but can not remember the last time I did both -genuinely- at the same time.  Yet, by the last scenes of The Momentum (a pitch perfect send up of the moment which occurs during every self help seminar when it’s time for individuals to “share” – and they do so with such startling honesty that they stun the room into a perplexed silence) I found myself holding back tears yet still laughing heartily.  Boo Killebrew’s monologue resonated particularly strongly with me, but all three were heartfelt and powerful so I think it just depends on your own experiences.  This show may be going for laughs, but by the end it reaches for so much more  . . . and it delivers.

So skip the self-help section and head straight for the Laurie Beecham Theater where the spinning hole of  The Momentum is ready to pat you on the head and kiss you good night.

____________________________

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Related Posts:

• Gleeam (Fringe Festival 2011)