Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The Bengsons’ new autobiographical musical THE LUCKY ONES is an ambitious, mystical follow-up to their HUNDRED DAYS

• By drediman
• April 1, 2018
• No Comments

Shaun Bengson, Adina Verson, and Damon Daunno in the Bengsons’ “The Lucky Ones” at the Connelly Theater, courtesy of Ars Nova.

Last night, Abigail and Shaun Bengsons’ new autobiographical musical The Lucky Ones opened Off-Broadway at the Connelly Theater, courtesy of the adventurous folks at Ars Nova. I was a huge fan of this husband-and-wife team’s previous effort Hundred Days, which played earlier this season at New York Theatre Workshop. Their follow-up The Lucky Ones is a much more ambitious endeavor. Whereas Hundred Days found an unexpected, almost disorienting, expansiveness within the “limited” confines of Abigail and Shaun’s budding romantic relationship, The Lucky Ones opens the duo’s conversational, folksy approach to musical storytelling to a much larger cast of characters and circumstances. Indeed, their new work recounts a horrific event that occurred when Abigail was fifteen years old – no spoilers here, although the event was mentioned in passing in Hundred Days – unleashing a chain of events that would wreak havoc on her close-knit group of family and friends (some of whom would remain permanent casualties of the damaging aftermath).

As currently written and performed, the piece appears to lack the impact of Hundred Days. It’s almost as if the Bengsons’ delicate, commentary-driven aesthetic is still calibrating to the expanded set of performers – numbering more than twenty, and comprised of young and talented actors, dancers, and musicians – as well as the inherently dramatic and disturbing incident at the show’s core. Or maybe it’s just me; I didn’t totally “get” Hundred Days the first time I saw it. Seeing it a second time was a revelation, as I was able to hone in on the sophisticated, heartrending way the Bengsons’ peeled the onion of their relationship. Seeing The Lucky Ones once again may prove similarly beneficial, allowing me to take in each moment within the context of its elaborate structure.

Anne Kauffman, one of the most prolific and poetically-inclined directors now working in the Off-Broadway scene (her works are at once avant-garde and coherent), reunites with the Bengsons, staging a production that draws you in with its numerous moments of seductiveness and mystery. Although I somewhat missed the simple elegance she brought to Hundred Days, Ms. Kauffman’s busier staging for The Lucky Ones is appropriately mystical, beautifully complimenting the Bengsons’ inquisitive writing. As always, the Bengsons remain an utterly appealing, inviting presence; over the years, they’ve grown into confident performers who are able to command and color the stage with various emotional hues. And their songs, especially as they themselves perform them, glow with wisdom and calm intensity – each are sparkle and communicate on a visceral level.

RECOMMENDED

THE LUCKY ONES
Off-Broadway, Musical
Ars Nova at the Connelly Theater
2 hours, 20 minutes (with one intermission)
Through April 21