The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Toast return of live entertainment at Playhouse Square
‘The Choir of Man’ at Playhouse Square a satisfying segue back to live productions
“The Choir of Man,” now playing at Playhouse Square, is the perfect placeholder for those starved for live theater and desperate for mask-free indoor entertainment.
This lightweight 90-minute show is one part boy band cover concert and two parts feel-good group therapy session. Created by Andrew Kay and Nic Doodson, who also directs, “The Choir of Man” was launched at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017, toured the UK and Australia, became a popular staple on Norwegian Cruise Line stages and hit the road in 2019 for a U.S. tour. It visited Playhouse Square in early 2019 and again in early 2020.
The production consists of nine amiable 20-to30-somethings hanging out in an alehouse and working their way through a jukebox song list. It includes pop standards by the likes of Katy Perry (“Teenage Dream”), semi-hard rock by Queen (“Somebody to Love”) and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (“Under the Bridge”), a tear-jerker by Luther Vandross (“Dance With My Father”), a thighpounding anthem by Fun (“Some Nights”), a tune from Broadway’s “Man of La Mancha” (“The Impossible Dream”) and more.
These highly diverse offerings are the equivalent of a mixtape that has something for everyone but most likely will enthrall no one.
The songs, delivered between bouts of poetic, direct-address reflections about life by charming cast member Denis Grindel, are backed by four musicians on a second-floor balcony as well as the boys on an assortment of mostly string and percussion instruments. But it is the occasional tune sung a cappella, including a marvelous rendition of Sia’s “Chandelier,” that best showcases the fellas’ significant vocal range and ear for harmony.
Jack Blume’s rudimentary choreography — plenty of stomping, strutting and synchronized stepping – is executed with so much energy and abandon that it appears to be a greater achievement than it really is. However, one of the boys, Jordan Oliver, occasionally breaks into tap dance that is quite impressive.
Production values are limited to a collection of colored spotlights hanging from the rafters, designed by Oli Townsend to complement the mood of each song being delivered.
All this works, in large part because the show’s calculated joyousness, well-rehearsed spontaneity and infectious exuberance are delivered by very talented, predominantly British and Irish performers. Most, including Grindel, Oliver, Peter Lawrence, Tom Brandon, Alistair Higgins and James Hudson, are original cast members and touring veterans. Others, such as Lemuel Knights, Miles Anthony and Keith Klein, are
The show also works because the world is pivoting out of a pandemic. Audiences are so thirsty for live entertainment that we are willing to crawl through the desert that is still Playhouse Square and eagerly drink the sand.
newbies to the production.
The show also works because the world is pivoting out of a pandemic. Audiences are so thirsty for live entertainment that we are willing to crawl through the desert that is still Playhouse Square and eagerly drink the sand.
Fortunately, free beer is offered to wash it down with. While pre-COVID 19 productions of “The Choir of Man” invited audience members on stage to share a cold one with the cast, cast members now circulate among the limited capacity, socially distanced audience to deliver pints.
The bottom line is that “The Choir of Man” is all storytelling and no story. Those just wanting to gather for a good time most certainly will get what they pay for. Theatergoers wishing for loftier stuff on stage will have to wait a little longer for downtown’s Cleveland Play House and Great Lakes Theater to reopen their doors in the fall.