The Secret Life of Bees

B+

When it was announced that Atlantic Theater Company would present a musical adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd’s 2001 best-selling novel with a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (Sweat, Ruined), music by Tony winner Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening), and direction by Tony winner Sam Gold (A Doll’s House, Part 2; Fun Home), the news created great excitement and high expectations. I am pleased to report that these expectations have mostly been met. The producers have splurged on a cast of 13 and nine musicians, a rare number for off-Broadway. Musically, the results are very rich. The songs are mostly strong and are given first-rate presentation by gorgeous voices and strong arrangements. The lyrics by Susan Birkenhead (Jelly’s Last Jam) are effective in creating the characters. During the first act, I felt the book did a good job of capturing the novel’s essence. The troubled background of opposition to civil rights in the 1960s South is skillfully blended into the book. However, after intermission it seemed like the creative team realized they had too much material to cover and began a rush to wrap things up that shortchanged important elements of the novel and left out the fate of an important character. While “Fifty-Five Fairlane” is a delightful song that Zachary sings about his beloved car, there is no such car in the novel (he drives an old truck) and the time the song takes could have been better spent on something more relevant such as the back story of the madonna statue. Somehow, the occasional outbursts of violence seemed more shocking in the context of a musical. Elizabeth Teeter (The Crucible) makes a solid impression as the young heroine Lily. LaChanze (The Color Purple), Eisa Davis (Luck of the Irish) and Anastacia McCleskey (Waitress) bring the three Boatwright sisters August, June and May vividly to life. Saycon Sengbloh (Eclipsed, Fela!) is spunky but sympathetic as Rosaleen, Lily’s fellow fugitive. Nathaniel Stampley (The Color Purple) is earnest as June’s long-suffering suitor Neil. Manoel Felciano (Sweeney Todd) is properly menacing as Lily’s abusive father T-Ray. As Zachary, Brett Gray is quietly appealing. As other members of The Daughters of Mary, the group of women who venerate the black madonna statue in the Boatwrights’ living room, Romelda Teron Benjamin (Brooklyn), Vita E. Cleveland and Jai’len Christine Li Josey (SpongeBob SquarePants) add beautiful voices to the ensemble. Joe Cassidy (Waitress) and Matt DeAngelis (Hair) are fine in several small roles. The set by Mimi Lien (True West, Fairview) is simple and uncluttered with brick walls, a polished wood floor and scattered votive candles. Dede Ayite’s (American Son, BLKS) costumes befit the characters well. Sam Gold’s direction is assured. Although I had some reservations about the book, I nevertheless found the production worthwhile.) Running time: two hour 20 minutes including intermission.

Alice by Heart

C-

I had misgivings about seeing this latest riff on the Lewis Carroll classic because, through some genetic quirk, I have always been immune to its charms. However, since the new musical has music by Duncan Sheik and a book by Steven Sater (with Jessie Nelson, who also directed), the team behind Spring Awakening, I decided to chance it. I was also eager to see the larger of the two theaters at MCC’s new space in the Far West 50’s. Loved the theater, endured the musical. In this version, set in a London Underground station in use as a bomb shelter during WWII, Alice (Molly Gordon; Sweeney Todd) is a young girl, orphaned in the Blitz, who tries to combat the awfulness of shelter life by rereading her beloved Alice in Wonderland. When her best friend Alfred (Colton Ryan; Girl from the North Country) is brought to the shelter severely ill, the two share their love of the Carroll book and fall through the rabbit hole into Wonderland where the residents of the shelter become characters from the book. I will leave matters there because further developments were too confusing to try to explain. Perhaps a closer knowledge of Carroll’s work might have helped, but I doubt it. I particularly objected to the book’s pandering to the audience by throwing in an occasional word like “kvell” or “haftorah.” A few of the songs made a strong impression, but they began to sound alike after a while. The talented young cast of 12, also including Mia Dilena, Zachary Downer, Noah Galvin, Zachary Infante, Andrew Kober, Grace McClean, Nkeki Obi-Melekwe, Catherine Ricfort, Heath Saunders and Wesley Taylor, was in fine voice and moved well. The choreography by Rick and Jeff Kuperman (The Light Princess) was inventive. The scenic design by Edward Pierce (Angels in America) was appropriately gloomy. Many of  Paloma Young’s (Permission, Yen) costumes were clever. Honesty compels me to report that many in the audience reacted to the show with great enthusiasm. The new theater shows great promise. It is wide but shallow, with no orchestra seats more than nine rows from the stage and just two rows in the mezzanine. Running time: one hour 40 minutes; no intermission.

American Psycho ***

This musical version of Brett Easton Ellis’s controversial 1991 novel about Patrick Bateman (the mesmerizing Benjamin Walker), an investment banker by day and serial killer by night, is a triumph of style over substance. Although I have neither read the book nor seen the movie, I gather that the musical has smoothed out a lot of the rough edges and reduced the body count substantially. Satire trumps gore most of the time. The soullessness of consumerist capitalism in the Reagan era is well-captured by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s book, Duncan Sheik’s music, Lynn Page’s choreography and Rupert Goold’s direction. The gadgets, brands, clubs and restaurants may have changed but the spirit of entitlement in 1989 New York is not all that different from today’s. Bateman and his coworkers are as vacuous as their pecs are buff. The women are equally unlikable. The monochromatic scenic design by Es Devlin and sophisticated projections by Finn Ross are so striking that they sometimes threaten to upstage the actors. Among them are Helene York as Bateman’s obnoxious fiancee, Jennifer Damiano as his love-struck secretary, Drew Moerlein as his rival, Morgan Weed as his mistress and Alice Ripley, basically wasted, as his mother. The whirling sets, hyperactive videos, bright lights (by Justin Townsend) and gaudy costumes (by Katrina Lindsay) eventually produced a feeling of sensory overload and a diminishing conviction that the story was worth all the effort involved. The second act loses some of the early energy. Nevertheless, as its best moments, the show’s style overcomes its flaws and makes for edgy entertainment. The audience, considerably younger than usual for Broadway, was quite enthusiastic. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes including intermission.

The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey ***

After a successful run downtown, James Lecesne’s one-man show has moved to the Westside Theatre for a limited run. Lecesne adapted the piece from his young adult novel about a flamboyant 14-year old boy in a Jersey shore town who goes missing. The story is told from the viewpoint of the hardboiled detective who worked the case 10 years ago. Lecesne skillfully transforms in the blink of an eye to the various townspeople the detective interviews in the course of the investigation. These include Leonard’s tough-as-nails guardian Helen, who operates “Hair Today”, the local salon; her teenage daughter Phoebe, whose life has been adversely affected by Leonard joining the household; the fey British expat who runs the local drama and dance school; a philosophically inclined mob widow; an old watchmaker with regrets about the way he treated his own son; one of Helen’s girlfriends; and a local bully named Travis. Not since the early work of Anna Deavere Smith have I seen a performer portray so many distinct characters with such apparent ease. Lecesne won an Oscar in 1995 for his short film Trevor and was a founder of The Trevor Project, a hotline for LGBT youth, so he is familiar with his material. My enthusiasm was slightly tempered by Lecesne’s tendency to give some of his characters too many easy laugh lines and by the dash of sentimentality at the end. I felt the performance was better than the material. Jo Winiarski’s minimalist set design is enhanced by Aaron Rhyne’s projections. Duncan Sheik wrote the unobtrusive music. Tony Speciale’s (Unnatural Acts) direction is uncluttered. Running time: 75 minutes.

Note: Picking a good seat downstairs at Westside Theatre is dicey. There are four pillars that obstruct the view from some seats. Rows B and C have no risers above Row A. Moving backward from there, only every other row is on a riser. None of this shows up on a seating map, so I suggest you book by phone and ask questions.