Book: Laura Eason; Score: Alan Schmuckler. At: Writers Theatre, 325 Tudor Ct., Glencoe. Tickets: 847-242-6000; www.writerstheatre.org; $35-$75. Runs through: July 13
Writers Theatre is bidding adieu to its antiquated Glencoe home with the world-premiere musical Days Like Today. Once the show closes, the building will be demolished to make way for a new state-of-the-art theater complex in 2016 designed by Chicago-based Studio Gang Architects.
So North Shore theatergoers who love the trademark intimacy of Writers Theatre should catch Days Like Today if they want to bid a fond farewell to its soon-to-be former home. Just be aware that the musical itself, though filled with plenty of promise, ultimately comes off as a dud.
Days Like Today is set in Martha's Vineyard and focuses on four seasons in the life of book editor and translator Tessa ( Emily Berman ) after she is jilted on her wedding day by fiancé Arnaud ( Jarrod Zimmerman ). As Tessa copes, she also has to deal with her parents and their respective lovers who drop in at the family beach house at inopportune moments.
This could be a fun recipe for some farcical business or heated conflicts, but instead composer/lyricist Alan Schmuckler and a book by Laura Eason have fashioned a show that is far too even-keel emotionally and scattershot dramatically to spur the characters to sing out their feelings in song. And though a new romantic interest appears early on for Tessa in the form of the love-struck pizza delivery guy James ( Will Mobley ), you sometimes wish that Schmuckler and Eason had instead focused the show more around the characters and relationships of Tessa's far-more-interesting parents.
Jonathan Weir plays Tessa's father, Frank, a gay classics professor who is still on very friendly terms with Tessa's mother, Maria ( Susie McMonagle ). Frank is in a relationship with much-younger former student Edmund ( Stephen Schellhardt ), while Maria has a friends-with-benefits arrangement with Francois ( Jeff Parker ), a smarmy hotshot choreographer who previously made a pass at Tessa in the past.
With so many principal characters in this chamber musical, the characterizations don't get to fully develop. And that's despite the polished and very professional technical performances from the full cast under director Michael Halberstam. And while Days Like Today is to be commended for its inclusiveness in terms of gay characters and their relationships ( particularly in Edmund's love song to Frank when he reflects on how it's great to be openly gay in America today ), that loving acceptance in this show doesn't translate to big dramatic fireworks or compelling conflicts in the show.
Still, it's nice that Writers Theatre took a chance on a new musical that aims to reflect the lives of people living in our own changing times. Too bad that it's the supporting characters who generate more interest and curiosity than the moping leading lady at the center of the show.