Yonge Road Theatricals & Goodman Theatre/Life After, e book, music and lyrics by Britta Johnson, choreographed by Ann Yee, directed by Annie Tippe, CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, closes Could 10. Tickets right here.
Earlier than stepping into the evaluation correct, I wish to categorically state that Britta Johnson is a blazing expertise, maybe even a genius. Only a few artists can efficiently create the e book, music and lyrics for a theatre piece, and Johnson is one in every of these treasured few.
That being stated, her affecting little musical, Life After, ought to by no means have been remodeled into the behemoth Broadway model present that it has grow to be.
I noticed Life After at Berkeley Road Theatre in 2017, and I used to be profoundly moved. The story is intimate in scope, and supersizing the fabric simply buries it amidst the Broadway glitz and glitter.
Out of equity, nonetheless, a virgin viewers, so to talk, may lap up the obese Life After, and judging by the post-opening response, many have. This current incarnation has been well-reviewed in some quarters and has clearly attracted comfortable prospects.
Alas, I’m not one in every of them.
The Story
The plot centres round 16-year-old Alice (Isabella Esler) and the grief she experiences after the unintended dying of her father Frank Carter (Jake Epstein).
She is consumed with guilt as a result of that they had had a vicious argument earlier than he left for a enterprise journey — one in every of many, as a result of Frank is a well-known self-help guru who has invented the idea of Transformotion, and he’s at all times on the highway.
Frank had known as Alice afterward the day of the argument, and since she was indignant, she didn’t reply. And now her father is useless.
Life After is about how Alice copes with the grief and the guilt. It additionally turns into a thriller that Alice has to resolve. Her father’s aircraft was leaving at 8 p.m., but his automotive crash was at 8:20 p.m. Why wasn’t he on the aircraft?
Alice is so wrapped up in her personal ideas that she is oblivious to the grief of her older sister Kate (Valeria Ceballas) and her mom Beth (Mariand Torres), and so tensions come up between them. Alice does get help from her buddy Hannah (Julia Pulo), and her English instructor Ms Hopkins (Chilina Kennedy).
There are additionally the Furies who’re different characters as wanted, however predominantly ideas in Alice’s thoughts; (Kaylee Harwood, Arinea Hermans, and Zoë O’Connor).
The Manufacturing
Johnson’s music is the star of the present.
Life After is a sing-through theatre piece which is way harder to compose than a set of stand-alone songs. Her prodigious expertise permits her to create tuneful music that embraces the temper or second and wraps the characters in a cocoon of lovely melodies.
As for Todd Rosenthal’s set, Serafina Bush’s costumes, and Japhy Weidman’s lighting, their designs are what you’ll anticipate in an enormous Broadway-style musical.
Thus, Life After is now recognized by an enormous set that may be a cross part of the inside of a home, with a spiral staircase connecting the flooring. There’s additionally a rotating stage that reveals completely different rooms. The myriads of enticing costumes, particularly for the Furies, replicate the world of in the present day. The lighting is huge, which means at all times in your face, as a result of it’s continuously altering and displaying off particular results.
Ann Yee has supplied the choreography that’s actually motion moderately than dance per se, nevertheless it does animate the stage. Veteran director Annie Tippe has finished a journeyman’s job transferring her actors up, down, and throughout the home in significant style.
The unique single piano has now grow to be a seven-piece musical ensemble with Johnson’s piano rating ballooned out by Lynne Shankel’s lavish preparations and orchestrations.
As for the performances, Life After is blessed by an uber gifted solid of American and Canadian artists who’re superb actors/singers. They will actually belt out a music. Notably robust are Mariand Torres (Beth the mom) and Julia Pulo (Hannah the buddy).
The Ending
Maybe probably the most egregious side of this over-produced musical is that it goes past its pure ending.
On this expanded model, the top ought to come because the mom and daughters paint the wall of the daddy’s workplace. Alice has at all times been adamant that nothing of her father’s must be modified, however after hesitating, she joins them within the silence — her means of displaying that she is able to transfer on.
Then Kate begins to cry, the primary overt signal of grief that we’ve seen. All through the present, characters have sung about their grief each with anger and sorrow, however now we’ve got uncooked emotion.
Alice and Beth put their arms round Kate and one another. It’s a lovely and really affective second as they collectively come collectively of their grief.
What follows looks like overkill. Sure, Alice, accompanied by the Furies, performs “Poetry”, probably the most lauded music from all variations of Life After.
Sadly, on this incarnation of the present, this scene has now grow to be gratuitous. We all know that Alice has come to phrases together with her guilt when she picks up the paintbrush.
Remaining Ideas
Regardless of a superb solid and an exquisite rating, Life After, because it has now grow to be, is a quintessential instance that huge isn’t at all times higher.
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Paula Citron is a Toronto-based freelance arts journalist and broadcaster who hosts her personal web site, paulacitron.ca. For over 25 years, she was senior dance author for The Globe and Mail, affiliate editor of Opera Canada journal, arts reviewer for Classical 96.3 FM, and dance previews contributor to Toronto Life journal. She has been a visitor lecturer for numerous cultural teams and universities, notably on the function of the critic/reviewer, and has been a panellist on COC podcasts. Earlier than assuming a full-time journalism profession, Ms. Citron was a member of the drama division of the Claude Watson Faculty for the Arts.
