AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

Mid-Morning Addition, 2/20/09:

Bloomberg.com

Artsy New Musical of Unrequited Love Is Delusional Twaddle: John Simon
The new Broadway musical “The Story of My Life” is not so much a show as an entrapment. Two good actors, Will Chase and Malcolm Gets, have been trapped in it for months, and the 90 endless-seeming minutes of it they share with us leave us feeling that way, too.

AmericanTheaterWeb

Review - The Story of My LIfe - A Small-Scale Musical for Lean Times

New York Times

Male Bonding: It’s a Wonderful Friendship
“The Story of My Life” is basically a classic chick flick translated to the stage with a different set of chromosomes.

New York Daily News

Sorry - it's not a wonderful 'Life'
At first "The Story of My Life" says Pottery Barn with its simple furniture and books, then it becomes clear the makers of the musical are aiming higher ... like at heaven.

amNY New York City Theater

Theater Review of The Story of My Life
You’ve really got to admire the chutzpah of the producers of “The Story of My Life” for putting on a show with no real audience appeal of any kind. In spite of its honest sincerity and somewhat imaginative storytelling, it’s just way too small to be on Broadway

Newsday

Review: 'The Story of My Life' on Broadway
It would be lovely to be able to say nice things about "The Story of My Life," the two-man musical that showed up on Broadway last night with no hype and lots of obvious care.

New York Post

'Story' isn't long for life
Just because the economy is shrink ing, must Broadway musicals down size, too? "The Story of My Life," which opened last night...

ny1

NY1 Theater Review: "Story of My Life"
f there's any criticism I have for this unusual new musical "Story of My Life," it's that it would probably be better served in a smaller, more intimate theater.

Time Out New York

Review: The Story of My Life
This well-intentioned but slight two-man musical has a pronounced identity crisis.

Hartford Courant

Malcolm Gets, Will Chase Fine, But "Story of My Life" Still Isn't Worth Hearing

Bergen Record

Looking back on a lifelong friendship
...an intelligent musical with a warm heart, is about.

Asociated Press

Review: Friendship Flowers in 'Story of My Life'
A large ghostly white bookcase, where memories are stored in book upon book upon book, dominates the stage of Broadway's Booth Theatre. On one side stands a white lectern.

Wall Street Journal

Thinking Very Small on Broadway
Despite being sincere and sentimental, and nicely staged and designed, "The Story of My Life" is an over-earnest dud. [Also reviews: 'Love/Stories']Variety

Review: The Story of My Life
...This flavorless new musical is not exactly terrible, but it's not terribly interesting, either, which makes you wonder why its producers thought it belonged on Broadway. Whatever the reason, it's unlikely to be staying long.

Back Stage

The Story of My Life reviewed by David Sheward
The trouble is that Brian Hill's book and Neil Bartram's score are so lightweight and derivative they have all the impact of a Hallmark card

TheaterMania

Review: The Story of My Life
Will Chase and Malcolm Gets give appealing performances in this affecting but not altogether satisfying musical about a lifelong friendship.

Talkin' Broadway

Review: The Story of My Life
If more musicals had as much heart as The Story of My Life, the sweet and simple little tuner by Neil Bartram and Brian Hill that just opened at the Booth, Broadway would be a better place. But heart alone does not guarantee great - or even good - musicals. And this one is, sadly, neither great nor good....

CurtainUp

Review: The Story of My Life
Neil Bartram's music and lyrics and Brian Hill's book bring to mind adjectives like heartfelt and touching, but also hokey, predictable and repetitive

 

New York Times

Blood and Guts in the Haunted House of Mannon
There are bad nights at the theater, and then once in a blue moon comes a lulu like this revival of Eugene O’Neill’s “Mourning Becomes Electra.”

New York Daily News

'Mourning' is broken in New Group revival
It's never a good sign when dramatic moments of a tragedy elicit laughter from an audience. But there they were, steady little gusts of giggles at "Mourning Becomes Electra." ...

Hartford Courant

New York Stage: Nothing Feels Real In 'Mourning Becomes Electra'

Associated Press

New Group Delves Into the Mannons' Dirty Doings
The sins of the forefathers come home to roost like buzzards in Eugene O'Neill's 1931 American Gothic trilogy, ''Mourning Becomes Electra.''.

Variety

Review: Mourning Becomes Electra
...a production so static and misdirected you start glancing around half-expecting the audience to mutiny.

Back Stage

Mourning Becomes Electra reviewed by Leonard Jacobs
In director Scott Elliott's revival of Eugene O'Neill's comedy Mourning Becomes Electra -- wait a minute. This isn't a comedy

TheaterMania

Review: Mourning Becomes Electra
Scott Elliott directs an extremely uneven production of Eugene O'Neill's reworking of the Oresteia.

Talkin' Broadway

Review: Mourning Becomes Electra
Add to Lavinia Mannon’s mounting list of identity crises a new and particularly shameful one: She’s not as youthful as her mother, Christine. After all, she vamps about her New England manse with the purposeful stride of a young nymphet advertising that she’s ripe and ready for plucking, while Lavinia broods about...

nytheatre.com

Review: Mourning Becomes Electra

CurtainUp

Review: hMourning Becomes Electra
While this over four hour time investment isn't as nourishing as one might hope for-- it is a rare opportunity to see Eugene O'Neill's trilogy except on a DVD of the 1947 movie

 

TheaterMania

Review: Soul Samurai
Qui Nguyen's tale of a woman warrior out for revenge is a wildly funny, action-packed delight.

nytheatre.com

Review: Soul Samurai
That fresh breeze of theatrical energy you're feeling from downtown Manhattan is Soul Samurai, the new and terrific show from Vampire Cowboys ....

Back Stage

Soul Samurai reviewed by Mark Peikert [critic's pick]
Even if, unlike me, you don't have a fondness for petite women brandishing large weapons, Soul Samurai offers plenty of charm and entertainment.

 

It's impossible to miss the sense of recession-era austerity that hovers around the new two-character Musical The Story of My Life. One's struck by the show's minimalism upon entering the Booth Theatre on Broadway, where the show opened last night. On stage, sitting on top of a low white platform are a white table and chair and an equally gleaming lectern (Robert Brill's spare scenic design ultimately proves to effectively sculptural, particularly as lit by Ken Billington and Paul Toben). A small musical is nothing new on Broadway – witness [title of show] earlier this season – and scale is not directly proportional to artistic success. Unfortunately, though charming, "Story," with a book by Brian Hill and music and lyrics by Neil Bartram, proves to be exceptionally slight, a series of vignettes about the friendship that begins in first grade between Thomas (Will Chase) and Alvin (Malcolm Gets).

Though in early childhood, the two are perfectly matched – their friendship begins in first grade when Thomas has come to school dressed as Clarence, the angel from It's a Wonderful Life, and Alvin has come as his recently deceased mother, dressed in robe and curlers. But as they grow, Alvin's unwillingness to conform essentially matches Thomas' increasing desire to fit in. After their high school graduation, the guys separate. Ironically, Alvin follows a path similar to George Bailey's in the Frank Capra classic, staying home to look after a sick father and the family bookstore. Thomas goes to school and achieves success as a writer, his passion fueled early on because of his friendship with Alvin. All of these details – and more – come out in flashbacks as Alvin tries to act as a muse for his friend, who sadly, is attempting to write Alvin's eulogy.

There is an undeniable pull to the tales – one would need to be pretty hard-hearted to not respond to grade-schoolers' antics (particularly with Austin McKinnis' and Alex Maizus' sweet voiceovers) or to the beginnings of the rift that pulls Alvin and Thomas apart as they go through puberty. Similarly, the poignancy that exists simply from the fact that Alvin has died before he and his friend could work through their estrangement is inescapable.

But pulling at theatergoers' heart-strings only goes so far, and ultimately, Hill's string of tales never truly compels. Yes, there are hints at what might have caused the final rift between the two, and a lingering question about what might have caused Alvin's death at a relatively young age, but the questions that are raised never combine to create the sort of dramatic tension that pulls theatergoers inextricably into the action.

Throughout Chase and Gets deliver winning portrayals of the characters – at all ages. Both deliver Bartram's songs, sometimes pleasant, pop-sounding numbers and at other times tunes that bring to mind work by composers like Stephen Sondheim and William Finn, with passion and heartfelt conviction. Individually, the men turn in performances that are filled with delightful details, and as Alvin, Gets' open face, gleaming smile and almost complete innocence combine to make a truly winning performance.

However enjoyable both men's work is, though, it is not enough to bolster "Story" beyond what is really just a slim theatrical volume of reminiscences, a diversion, but nothing more, for tough times.

---- Andy Propst

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The Story of My Life plays at The Booth Theatre (222 West 45th Street). Performances are Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8PM, with matinees on Wednesday and Saturday at 2PM and Sunday at 3PM. Tickets are $66.50 - $110.00 and can be purchased by calling 212-239-6200 or by visiting www.telecharge.com. Further information is available online at www.TheStoryOfMyLife.com

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