Kirk Wood Bromley’s newest venture is a historical fiction play, based on the life and world journeys of Charles Darwin. Not as dull as you’d think. A fascinating, important man, but I never thought he’d be appropriate fodder for a play. Despite the fact that there is no real plotline or antagonist (apart from Creation vs. evolution), the show has real potential. It needs work, of course, but it is still in its workshop stage.

I Loved the cast. Loved. So well cast. Steven Rattazi is brilliant as the unsure, emotionally vulnerable Darwin. T. Ryder Smith, as Captain Fitzroy, is tony-worthy (here’s to hoping) in his decent into madness in act two. Sarah K. Lippman is smart and supportive of her fiance on his journey, and acts as a sounding board for Darwin’s thoughts and ideas as he writes to her from all over the world. The role isn’t that interesting but she does a good job with it. My friend Timothy Crown McReynolds as the artist, Augustus Earle was creepy and effective. Also very gay. Which he is not. Good acting job. Hank Wagner as the ship’s smart ass/Shakespearian style clown was Cockney and quick and wonderful. Bob Laine does a fantastic job as the ship’s priest (Richard Matthews). His character arc is very clear, as he degenerates from a hopeful man of God to one destroyed. The rest of the cast is equally strong. Bromley created these characters all on real people. He needs to do more to make them interesting. I think he’s trying to stay true to history, but one of Bromley’s strongpoints is his ability to make fascinating, fictional characters. He needs to bring more of his usual wacky eccentricity to these real people.

Joshua Spafford’s direction is clean and accessible. He does a great job keeping things physical and interesting even in the show’s most “talky” scenes. Spafford does a cameo, as Senior Chillito. He steals the show in his comic blunderings as a self-proclaimed ladies man in Buenos Aires. I did not like the fact that Spafford chose not to bow with the cast. Yes, the director normally doesn’t, but he was also a cast member. It was odd.

My main issue with the show is its length. With a late start and long intermission, we didn’t get out of the theatre until 11:10. I really hate being told a vastly incorrect running time on a show. Some scenes in act one could use some extensive cutting, but Kirk’s poetic script is hard to scale down, as much of the dialogue is pretty beautiful. He really is like “Shakespeare on mushrooms.” Especially in the captain’s crazy scene.

I think more could have been done with Darwin’s visiting of other cultures. It seemed like too much time was spent on the ship, the men all talking and philosophizing, and not enough time was spent on their experiences with the characters they meet around the world.

Big issue with Bromley’s choice to throw in Lippman at the end as “The Playwright.” She comes out and talks to Darwin as a way to summarize. However, Wagner’s character had been acting as the narrator up to that point. This breaking of the fourth wall convention didn’t work in this context.

There is a lot that can be done with this show to improve it. But what a brilliant start. Even without any sex or death, a play about the theories of sex and death can be equally fascinating!

Thanks to Sunil for getting me the tickets to this show, and we got to sit on the floor (complete with table service) at the wonderful Studio 54 theatre. Sadly, this show was designed to be much more spectacular from the mezzanine. We were not able to see the moat surrounding the stage from our seats. But we were so close we got to see everything else, so it’s ok. The previous inhabitant of the theatre (Assassins) was just the opposite; better from the floor. Oh well.

I really enjoyed this show. It had its issues, but in all I think it is definitely worth seeing. The star of the show, of course, is Sondheim’s score. One of his more unique and complex works. And what a weird thing to write a musical about! The opening up of Japan to foreign influence in the late 1800’s would not be at the top of my list of subjects for writing a musical. Surprisingly, it works. And politically, this is a very important and relevant time to be reviving it.

B.D. Wong was commanding and likeable in the story teller role. Not a fabulous singer, a good singer. This makes me angry. I’m sure there was some other guy who didn’t get the role, who was a better singer, but not as big of a name. In fact, I wasn’t that impressed on a vocal level with the cast. Their character work was all top notch, but in the chorus numbers, the ensemble wasn’t as strong as I would have liked. I guess the concept of the triple threat is a myth?

I also wonder why there are no female characters. There is one, and she dies after one scene. Thanks for the Sausage party, Sondheim.

A nice end to the evening came in the curtain call, when Wong walked to a fellow castmate, pulls him forward, and announces, “First time on Broadway!” to the audience. Must have been an understudy in his first performance. And we all cheered for him! What a nice moment for him.
The set design by Rumi Matsui was nice. Minimal and functional. Highlights were the drawbridge (acting as a physical and metaphorical opening up of Japan to the West) and when the whole set came crashing down at the end (war montage). Very cool. And the costumes (Junko Koshino) were gorgeous.

I did have some issues with the directing. Amon Myiamoto is the first Japanese person ever to direct on Broadway. Good for him! But he needed to clean things up a bit. The first act is just too damn long. He should have either cut it, or found a way to move things along at a better pace. It stagnated at times. Act two is shorter and didn’t have that problem.

In summary, this is a great show with a lot of little issues that could make it even greater. Maybe next time around. But, as stated, I really think, from a modern, political standpoint, this is an important show to do. The end scene, an angry, wild, thrashing, futuristic modernist japanese fury montage, was really very cool and at the same time, moving. A good show. Thanks Stevey Sondheim, I love you!