THE HANGOVER REPORT – Sky-Pony’s THE WILDNESS sounds and looks fabulous but suffers from tenuous storytelling

111807This past weekend, I attended a late-night performance of the new musical The Wildness at Ars Nova (in collaboration with The Play Company). The self-professed “rock fairy tale” makes use of Sky-Pony’s existing repertoire of catchy pop-punk anthems, in addition to some new material. Too bad the potent and excitingly-performed songs are deployed to tell a sub-par story. Essentially, The Wildness is the name of a group therapy session which re-enacts, in order to confront its members’ self-doubts, the tale of two girls who enter the forbidden woods to save the day. Ultimately, however, our two heroines come to the realization that life is full of unanswered questions and dead ends. Unfortunately, the precious book (credited to Kyle Jarrow and Lauren Worsham) manages to both over-simplify and muddle the dilemmas, resulting in a headscratching fairy tale with a moral that’s obvious and not very enlightening (Sondheim’s more articulate Into the Woods does a much better job of exploring “after happy ever after”).

Well-credentialed director Sam Buntrock (the Tony- and Olivier-nominated director of the excellent recent revival of Sunday in the Park with George) does a good job of attempting to mask the weak book by upping the flash and immersive elements of the production. In the tiny Ars Nova space, the production literally jumps out at you and is relentlessly in-your-face – in a good way. The show’s glammed up retro-fairy tale look is also a hoot, thanks to set designer Kris Stone, costume designer Tilly Grimes, and particularly lighting designer Brian Tovar. The cast is excellent, particularly the show’s two heroines, played by Lauren Worsham and Lilli Cooper. The chameleon-like and multi-talented Ms. Worsham, who is currently very pregnant, is giving a fierce and deliciously devious performance as Zira, an effective counterpoint to Ms. Cooper’s cool, quietly thrilling Ada. Both are vocal powerhouses.

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THE WILDNESS
Off-Broadway, Musical
Ars Nova in collaboration with The Play Company
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through March 26

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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