Stoneham Theatre's second two-handed musical this winter is Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald's 1995 "John and Jen", which began as a ten minute challenge and grew into a short two-act sung-through chamber music drama. This first-rate production, directed by Scott Edmiston, who's now head of the Office of the Arts at Brandeis, reunites two of the members of his revival of "Jacques Brel..." which was a hit two seasons ago for the Gloucester Stage Company. IRNE winner Leigh Barrett and erstwhile Blue Man Eric Rubbe play Jen, who goes from a child in the '50s in the first act to a mother in the '80s and '90s in the second, and John, her baby brother in the first act, then her son named after him in the second. Both these seasoned performers maintain a strong musical and stage presence throughout this intense show. Barrett has just passed her role as the Abbess in Wheelock Family Theatre's impressive "Sound of Music" to her alternate for the last week of that run, Rubbe has completed his tour of duty for Blue Man Group in Boston, New York, and Chicago.
Briefly, this show is an exploration of family stresses and affection. Mother disappears from the tale in the midst of Act One. Father, an abusive WWII vet looms unseen over both acts. The bound between his children in the face of difficulty is stressed when Jen goes off to college in New York and becomes part of the peace and love generation, finally fleeing to Canada with her poet boyfriend. John counters by joining the Navy at his father's urging and does not return from Viet Nam. In the second half, Jen returns as a single mother, with her son named after her departed brother, determined to protect her second John. Mother love becomes smothering, and he too leaves, leaving Jen painfully aware of the fragility of family bonds, singing "Every Goodbye Is A Hello". This deceptively simple tale has a myriad of resonances, many of which pass too quickly for real consideration.
Lippa's score makes only a slight use of the various musical genres through which the show passes, which seems an unnecessary limitation, but perhaps necessary since all the major accompaniment is on a solo piano. This production adds a cello and percussion, which fills the space somewhat, but repeated musical ideas have trouble developing into motifs under such sparse musical conditions. Music director Timothy Evans does heroic duty at the keyboard. The voices of the two principals blend and the often-clever lyrics credited to both Greenwald and Lippa can be heard quite clearly. That they worked together over several months in " Jacques Brel..." is all to the advantage singing this challenging piece. The result is a show good enough to make one wish it were better, that the creators would revisit this project and finish it, expanding just a bit on the first act to make brother John more rounded, scoring for at least one more keyboard to add the possibility of having the music assist with marking the passing years, and deepening the finale.
The passage of time is most plainly marked by projections of family and historical images on a large screen over the musicians visible upstage. The rest of the background is a series of painted enlargments of family photos of the kids. On either side of the stage, designer Janie E Howland has created cluttered areas containing the show's props and many chargeable costume pieces, suggesting kids rooms or the attic. Ace costumer Gail Astrid Buckley has found and built modern period garments which allow Barrett to age 40 years without a sense of parody, and Rubbe to be forever young. Edmiston makes full use of these two professional designers who were also part of the "Jacques Brel..." project, as was M.I.T.'s Karen Perlow who, using this space for the first time, provides a range of lighting moods and effects. This may be the most complete production of the full show since its advent at Goodspeed.