Almost ten years after its brief run in NYC, Jason Robert Brown's revue, "Songs for a New World" currently being revived by Metro Stage shows the continued development of this company. At least on par with their successful "Assassins" a little over a year ago, this current effort, again directed by Janet Neely, achieves much of the potential in this collection of songs which vary from the universal to the personal. Originally staged with only four singers for a brief run at the W.P.A., Metro is using eight, which adds variety and offers more vocal color in the group numbers, which are not the show's strongest material.
The first real show stopper is the third, "Just One Step" Tracy Nygard's comic suicide attempt. Her last musical was "The Full Monty" at Turtle Lane. Kristin Huberdeau, whose various credits include NSMT, soon gets into "Stars and the Moon," a song which has moved into the repertoire of some well-known singers. She's also affecting in the "Christmas Lullaby" in the second half which starts with with Grace Summer, who just played Helena in "Midsummer..." for Hovey, doing a Kurt Weill parody. "Surabaya-Santa". Mary O'Donnell, the most experienced cast member, repeats the "New World" theme several times starting with the opening, but is most impressive doing "The Flagmaker 1775," one of the show's two historical numbers, an antiwar piece. "Songs..." is really a compendium of material from various early projects by this ambitious songwriter.
Actor/director James Tallach, a Turtle Lane stalwart who was seen in Metro's "Assassins," has a strong romantic duet with Nygard, "I'd Give It All for You," one of several numbers foreshadowing Brown's better known show, "The Last Five Years." Aaron Velthouse, most recently Sky Masterson at Turtle Lane, is most impressive doing "KIng of the World," about a jailed dictator. Joshua Heggie, seen last winter at Turtle Lane as Jim in "Big River" joins Chas Kircher in "The River Don't Flow," followed soon after by "She Cries". Kircher closes the first act as the lead singer in "The World Was Dancing," a bittersweet romance with Huberdeau. Velthouse leads the penultimate number, "Flying Home."
The distinctive voices of this ensemble are backed up by music director Karen Gahagan at the keyboard, with Michael Joseph on a second. Kimmerie Jones provided the cast with simple black costumes suited to their personae, Andrew Haserlat created an effective unit set with a raised podium upstage left, while John MacKenzie gets effective lighting out of the limited positions available. Choreography, necessarily brief, is by Donald Ray Gregorio, another Turtle Lane hand. The show depends mostly on the presentation of Brown's lyrics in musical context, which this experienced cast manages consistently under Neely's direction. Incidentally, all the lyrics are available of the author's website.