New York 3

November 12, 2016

Went to the Circle in the Square for the first preview of a new a capella musical, In Transit. The theater was full of kids, so I suppose the production was connected with the acting school there. In the first five minutes one was convinced that one was seeing something new and wonderful. It was stylistically vibrant and electrifying, though the plot dived almost immediately for the middle, giving us recognizable characters in recognizable Broadway situations– we’re just kids trying to make it in the Big Apple, trying to ace that audition, trying to get to the all-important interview, trying to find a way to tell mom we’re gay. Heard it all before, but not exactly in that way, so the evening was a delight. One mistake that you’d have thought they would have seen easy enough was the beat-boxer, who stopped the show dead in its tracts every time he came on to show off his stuff. He had an additional function as a kind of soothsayer, which was fine, but he could have done one without the other, or done what a beat boxer is supposed to do, accompany.