Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The delightful OLD STOCK is a bizarre and beguiling new musical

• By drediman
• March 28, 2018
• No Comments

Ben Caplan in 2b Theatre’s production of “Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story” at 59E59 Theaters.

Last night at 59E59 Theaters, I attended a performance of 2b Theatre’s Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story, a strange but refreshing jolt of a musical from north of the border. Like its Canadian brethren, the unlikely Broadway hit Come from Away, Old Stock exudes a generosity of spirit that may first come across as cloying. But by the time this insistent little show has finished telling its story, I was bewitched by its bizarre charm and singular sense of goodwill.

Created by Hannah Moscovitch, Ben Caplan, and Christian Barry, Old Stock tells the tough – and true –  love story between two Jewish refugees from Romania. Taking place mostly in Montreal during the turn of the century, we watch these two characters’ struggle through the growing pains of a barely budding relationship. This is ground that’s been trodden before, but there’s something about Old Stock’s contradictory, genre-bending aesthetics and droll, at times deadpan, delivery that feels completely new.

Indeed, Mr. Caplan, backed by a wonderful multi-tasking band of four, is a sensational stage presence. As the wise, mysterious emcee and musical narrator (he leads nearly all of the show’s concert-style songs) of the evening, he is undoubtedly the engine and conflicted heart of the show. His conjurings of the past are like piercing hallucinations that leave ghostly residues. And combined with the jarringly placed and intensely-performed new wave Klezmer songs, the show attains a bite that’s both unexpected and beguiling.

In texture, Old Stock calls to mind unconventional and economically-structured musicals like John Cameron Mitchell’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the Bengsons’ Hundred Days, and Benjamin Scheuer’s The Lion. All of these turned out to be successful hits, each returning to New York for multiple engagements. There’s no reason Old Stock shouldn’t join that accomplished company.

RECOMMENDED

OLD STOCK: A REFUGEE LOVE STORY
Off-Broadway, Musical
2b Theatre at 59E59 Theaters
1 hour, 20 minutes (without an intermission)
Through April 22