Songbird review two river theater12/6/2023 It’s very hard to work up any sympathy for her.Įric William Morris’s Beck garners a bit more sympathy, at least until the penultimate scene when Mia reveals a hard truth about their relationship. She flounces around the bar, throwing her fame in everyone’s face (especially that of her former bandmate Pauline) and commenting very loudly and dismissively of her son’s musical effort. What gets lost in Finley’s portrayal is that Tammy’s star is fading her single reference to smaller venues and crowds is tossed off so casually that it’s easily missed. Tammy (Felicia Finley) is a narcissistic country-pop star, more interested in her career than motherhood and determined to hang onto her young lover Beck. Chekhov’s eponymous seagull becomes a bluebird, a symbol of happiness in many cultures, that Dean kills with his truck.īut compressing Chekhov’s four acts into two and making room for the show’s songs often results in caricatures rather than three-dimensional characters. Indeed, Kimmel does create Nashville counterparts for Chekhov’s central characters, the famous middlebrow story writer Boris Trigorin (Beck), the ingenue Nina (Mia), the fading actress Irina Arkadina (Tammy Tripp), and her son, the symbolist playwright Konstantin Tréplev (Dean, right with Tripp). (above: Felicia Finley, center, as Tammy Trip, with the Company)Ĭountry music’s preoccupation with themes of unrequited love, jilting, nostalgia for the place one couldn’t leave fast enough would seem perfect for Chekhov’s 1895 comedy with its focus on the romantic and artistic conflicts between four characters. Ultimately, though, Mia reappears, rejects Dean’s heartfelt protestations of love and declares her continuing feelings for Beck, causing Dean to leave the bar and step in front of an oncoming tractor trailer. When she runs away with Beck, Dean attempts suicide by hanging, bringing Tammy home again to indulge in some lukewarm mothering. Tammy brings along her much-younger songwriter boyfriend Beck, who turns the head of Dean’s girlfriend Mia. Songbird is the tale of famous country singer Tammy Tripp, who has returned fresh off a national tour to the Nashville bar and music venue owned by her brother Soren and managed by her best friend Pauline and her husband Samuel to hear her son Dean debut his song. The rest was filled with often smart-mouthed chitchat and lots of country songs-18 in all-none of them furthering the plot line. There’s so much singing that after 45 minutes, I wondered when the dramatic action would begin a substantial conversation lasting longer than 10 words didn’t occur until an hour into the performance. Unfortunately, I was disappointed, for instead of a penetrating and clear-sighted mirror of Nashville music society, the play is more a string of individual musical numbers than a play with music.įollowing the basic plot outline of Anton Chekhov’s play, The Seagull, this new musical by Michael Kimmel, with music and lyrics by Lauren Pritchard, is a tiresome mess that, despite its energetic performances, remains uninvolving. Thus, it was with great anticipation that I trekked down to Red Bank to catch their final offering, Songbird. What with bad weather, illness and personal travel, I hadn’t gotten to review any of Two River Theater’s productions of the 2017-2018 season.
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