Cast charms in ‘How to Marry a Divorced Man’
Central Florida audiences got a sneak peak at “How to Marry a Divorced Man,” onstage at Winter Park Playhouse, during the 2018 Florida Festival of New Musicals there. After being workshopped at the festival, the show is now making its world premiere on the Playhouse stage.
Based on a book of the same name by Leslie Fram, “How to Marry a Divorced Man” is a chipper little musical in which Layla, our heroine, explains the steps to dating a divorced man directly to the audience. This breaking-the-fourth-wall concept works well, in large part thanks to the charms of Christine Brandt in the leading role.
Brandt, who also played the part at the 2018 new-musicals festival, keeps the show aloft with the pluck and optimism she adds to Layla; Brandt keeps the audience firmly on her side, even when her character is making obviously disastrous choices.
But waiting for the comic disaster is a big part of the fun in this show by Bryan D. Leys with music by Clare Cooper.
Layla — “Mama was a Clapton fan,” she tells the audience — worries she might have waited too long to get married. Her dotty mother, a soap-opera diva with a sketchy grasp of reality, suggests her best chance at finding a mate is by dating a divorced man. Enter Bo, a Texan sports agent with baggage: a rock-star ex-wife and two precocious children.
Before long, Layla has assumed not one by two alter egos and is lying to everyone in her orbit — though with good intentions.
Director Roy Alan keeps things sailing along as Layla’s multiple identities are created in the first act, and he handles the inevitable discovery of her lies with comedic flair. But after Layla’s house of cards comes tumbling down early in the second act, momentum flags as the storytelling wobbles.
The play suffers an awkward transition into a more serious mode, and somehow in the plot Bo is soon apologizing to Layla instead of the other way around.
Yet when there are comic moments, they shine. Sonia Roman gives a brilliantly intense performance of a rocker reliving past glory in her punk song “Work.” Lourelene Snedeker, as Layla’s mom, gives a fabulously funny award-acceptance speech that deserves to be longer.
As Bo, Zach Nadolski has a tougher road. Perhaps because everything is told from Layla’s point of view his character never feels fully defined. But thank heavens for Nadolski’s natural charisma and empathetic vibe. With a Texas drawl you could spread barbecue sauce on, he shows us why both Layla and his ex would fall for Bo.
Cooper’s tunes are hummable and offer a good mix of pop, rock and country. A tauter second act would be the icing on the (wedding?) cake for this diverting bit of silliness that in the end is a look at the many forms of love.