Composer/librettist: Laurence Mark Wythe.
At: Greenhouse Theater
Center, 2257 N. Lincoln.
Phone: 773-404-7336; $28.50-$34.50
Runs through: Dec. 7. Tomorrow Morning. Photo by Michael Brosilow
There's a lot to admire in the 2006 musical Tomorrow Morning, now having its professional Chicago premiere at the Greenhouse Theater Center after an appearance at Theatre Building Chicago's 2007 STAGES Festival. Yet, Tomorrow Morning has echoes of other musicals dealing with the ups and downs of marriage that it can't help but feel derivative.
There is a lot of craft and wit in the script, score and lyrics, all by British author Laurence Mark Wythe. Similarly high compliments are also due for the snappily paced staging by director/choreographer Tom Mullen.
The musical shows two couples facing a life-changing event taking place ( when else? ) tomorrow morning.
First there's Kat and John ( Emily Thompson and Michael Mahler ) , a young couple stressing out on the eve of their wedding day. Then there's Jack and Catherine ( Jonathan Rayson and Charissa Armon ) , a pensive and embittered duo planning to officially sign their divorce papers the next day.
Wythe drops enough clues for audiences to eventually deduce that these couples are one and the same. The concept would be fresh if it weren't for Jason Robert Brown's 2002 musical The Last Five Years, which also flip-flops between the giddy beginnings and the painful disillusion of a marriage.
Tomorrow Morning also takes a page from Joe DiPietro's hit 1995 musical revue I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. Numbers about secrets the couples hide from each other ( porn, compulsive shopping ) and a phone-sex scenario about 'The Pool Guy' are both stereotypical and non-specific enough to be plopped down in DiPietro's all-demographics panderer. ( Wythe also goes the easy route for humor by having Jack write a commercial for an erectile dysfunction drug. )
Tom Mullen's choreography also liberally borrows from A Chorus Line and Singin' in the Rain. It's done as a fun homage, but still feels derivative.
Yet if you overlook these criticisms, you'll still get a fun and thoughtful look at the changes faced in an ongoing relationship. Mullen's staging benefits enormously from Mike Tutaj's video projections which feature Jennifer James' playful stick-figure illustrations.
In the acting department, Mahler and Thompson make a better go at the material as the neurotic soon-to-be newlyweds. It also helps that they end up with the bulk of the humor.
As the couple's future selves, Armon and Rayson's downer material isn't as rich or specific. It's not entirely their faults that their peers vastly overshadow them.
Tomorrow Morning may not say much that already hasn't been said by other marriage musicals as old as I Do! I Do! from the 1960s or Married Alive! from this decade. But audiences can still take plenty of enjoyment from Tomorrow Morning's comfortable familiarity and universal relationship truths.