ACT takes ‘Walk on the Moon’ with new musical
Lively show has plot reminiscent of ‘Bridges of Madison County’
In a new musical based on a 1990s movie, a discontented 1960s housewife, who once had dreams, has an affair with a hunky, traveling free spirit as some kind of great awakening.
No, we’re not talking about “The Bridges of Madison County,” which Theatre Works Silicon Valley performed a couple of months ago. This one is the world premiere musical “A Walk on the Moon,” which closes the current season at American Conservatory Theater as the last show under Carey Perloff’s artistic direction before Pam MacKinnon takes the helm.
“A Walk on the Moon” is written by Pamela Gray, the screenwriter of the original 1999 movie, with songs by Paul Scott Goodman (“Bright Lights, Big City”) and additional lyrics by Gray.
The action takes place in a “bungalow colony” of vacationing New York Jewish families in the Catskills in the summer of 1969. Although she has a good relationship with husband Marty, Pearl Kantrowitz feels lost in her life and prays to Neil Armstrong for guidance. Like the other husbands, Marty has to work in Brooklyn during the week, but he has trouble making it back even on weekends because of all the people who need TVs repaired before the historic moon landing. Add the traffic nightmare caused by the nearby Woodstock festival, and Pearl is pretty
much on her own with the kids. So she’s particularly susceptible to the easygoing charms of the “Blouse Man” who drives in to peddle his wares.
Unlike “Bridges,” this story gives a lot of weight to the damage done by the affair. The trouble is, it’s harder to see what Pearl sees in “Blouse Man” Walker Jerome in the musical, than it was in the movie. Part of what made the film work was the palpable heat generated by Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen, something that’s hard to replicate onstage in a large house. Katie Brayben displays an almost sleepwalking reserve as Pearl and has little chemistry with Zak Resnick’s amiable hippie Walker, who comes off as curiously clingy for such a free spirit.
The musical is very faithful to the film, although there’s a lot more explaining of motivations in song form. A few callbacks to memorable moments from the movie are a little awkward, such as a simple changing of the radio station to indicate trying new things, which becomes a non sequitur in the middle of a song unless you remember the original.
On the whole, though, the new show conveys the story well, and Goodman’s songs are catchy throughout, an appealing mix of ’60s-style grooviness and more contemporary folkpop, with some amusing ’50s throwback numbers for Pearl’s wisecracking fellow housewives (Monique Hafen, Molly Hager and Ariela Morgenstern). The cast and the band, led by music director Greg Kenna, delivers them all with aplomb.
Brigid O’Brien is a fiery Alison, the sullen and rebellious daughter who has her own coming-of-age drama going on, featuring a sweet flirtation with Nick Sacks as a charmingly awkward 16-year-old aspiring singer-songwriter. Nina Kissinger provides an eager sounding board as Alison’s prim but curious Orthodox friend.
Elijah Cooper is a cheery charmer as Alison’s little brother, Danny. Jonah Platt is playful and sympathetically wounded as Marty, while Kerry O’Malley is an understated and largely unobserved observer as Pearl’s mother-in-law Lillian.
Director Sheryl Kaller gives the show a lively and well-paced staging that flows naturally in and out of the songs. Donyale Werle’s terrific and versatile set nicely creates the illusion of cozy cottages in the woods, backed by Tal Yarden’s projections of historical montages of the era.
Although both the affair and the reconciliation happen a little too easily and could use more buildup, on the whole it’s an awfully entertaining new musical that does credit to its source material.