Reviews 2006
Reviews 2006
✭✭✭✩✩
music by Andrew Lippa, lyrics by Tom Greenwald,
book by Tom Greenwald & Andrew Lippa,
directed by Michael Jones
Acting Up Stage Theatre Company,
Walmer Centre Theatre, Toronto
January 26-February 11, 2006
Acting Up Stage Theatre Company’s second production is the Toronto premiere of Andrew Lippa’s 1993 musical john & jen. For most of its two hours this amiable two-person show deals solely in generalities. What raises it out of the ordinary are the outstanding performances of Kyle Blair and Stephanie Roth.
The musical covers the period from the mid ‘50s to mid ‘90s in the life of Jen (Roth). In Act 1 she is the older sister protective of her young brother John (Blair). In Act 2 she has become a single mother protective of her son named after John (also Blair). Lippa and lyricist Tom Greenwald are so keen on making the situation universal, they forget to make John or Jen characters rather than collections of clichés. Lippa quotes the odd tune from the four decades covered, but those styles never imbue his own which remains far too unvaried until near the end when Jen’s big song “The Road Ends Here” bursts out and finally it feels as if Lippa, too, has found his own voice.
Roth has the widest emotional arc to cover and does so with great feeling and nuance. Blair infuses both Johns with youthful energy while subtly differentiating the two. To hear such fine, strong voices unmiked is an added pleasure.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2006-02-02.
Photo: Kyle Blair and Stephanie Roth. ©Joanna McDermott.
2006-02-02
john & jen