Eddie (Chandler Sinks), Mrs. Quinn (Karen Murphy) and Lynn (Dana Costello) all have a biblical case of The Jerusalem Syndrome.
It is not unusual for musical comedy characters to undergo transformations. The genre is filled with lonely women who find love, vindictive men who turn generous, and insecure bumblers who gain confidence. All of the above are on display in the York Theatre Company’s breezy premiere of The Jerusalem Syndrome, but the writing team of Laurence Holzman and Felicia Needleman serve up this evolution with a new twist. Well, an ancient twist, actually. By play’s end, its five leads are all better people. But they achieve this feat by spending most of the show thoroughly convinced that they are characters from the Bible.
As the authors are quick to point out, Jerusalem Syndrome is a documented psychological phenomenon. Apparently upwards of 200 tourists per year are overcome by the Holy City and find religion in the strangest of ways. However, this production is no serious study of cognitive dissonance. Under the spirited direction of Don Stephenson and featuring a rollicking score by Kyle Rosen, a cast of 14 sing and dance their way through what is decidedly more lighthearted mythology than medical pathology.
Nurse Rena (Laura Woyasz) attends to her patient, soap opera hunk Mickey Rose (James D. Gish). Photographs by Carol Rosegg.
The opening number, “El Al Flight,” feels like an airborne variation of a scene from The Love Boat, as it goes about introducing each of the travelers while spelling out their plights. Presumably because a single flight is unlikely to carry multiple syndrome sufferers, the tourists have been divvied up across three jets. In this staging, video projections, as opposed to set pieces, are the standard, eliminating the necessity for multiple fuselages. Plus, there's a lyrical advantage in being able to incorporate three distinct flight numbers for rhyming purposes.
First on board is Phyllis (Farah Alvin), a professor hoping to rekindle her drab marriage to businessman Alan (Jeffrey Schecter). “Help us find that spark again/El Al Flight Seven Ten,” she pleads. Charles (Alan H. Green) is a gay Christian with a chip on his shoulder. Bequeathed some land across from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, he is rushing to make sure the parcel ends up as the site for a gay-friendly resort hotel. Eddie (Chandler Sinks) is a young tour guide on his first unsupervised outing, tending a small group of vacationers when not tripping over his own feet. Rounding out the bunch are Lynn (Dana Costello), fresh off a bad breakup, and soap opera hunk Mickey (James D. Gish).
Once the planes land, the syndrome kicks in full-throttle. Charles, in the stirring “Daddy Loved Jesus,” bemoans his father’s preference for religion over family. His declaration, “I’m your son” becomes “I’m the Son” as he suddenly believes he is Jesus. Meanwhile, Phyllis, on a trip to the Western Wall, is triggered into becoming Sarah, wife of Mickey—or rather Abraham, as he will come to call himself. Eddie turns into the most famous of tour guides, Moses, while Lynn outdoes them all by becoming God Herself.
Phyllis (Farah Alvin) finds rapture at the Western Wall.
As Charles roams the earth (chronicled in the unsubtle ditty, “Weirdo in a Bed Sheet”), everyone else ends up in the psych ward at Hadassah University Hospital, where Dr. Zion (Josh Lamon) warbles the title song (“We attribute it to lapses/In the frontal lobe synapses.”) and flirty nurse Rena (Laura Woyasz) brings new meaning to the phrase “Bible belt” with her dynamic rendition of “Room Seventeen,” wherein she tries to tame her lust for Mickey: “There’ll be no hoochy-koochy/Honey, you’re no Susan Lucci.” As Act I concludes, Moses never supposes he has a psychosis, doing instead what comes naturally. He leads his people out of oppression, staging an escape from the hospital for his cadre which has grown to include Noah, John the Baptist and a Virgin Mary or two.
On a musical spectrum, Act II falls somewhere between Godspell and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, with the company singing not “Day by Day” but “What a Day!” before regaining their senses and pairing off in a flurry of happy endings. Meanwhile, no double entendre goes unturned. When Eddie kisses Lynn, her reaction is, “Oh, Moses, I don't know why they say you’re slow of tongue.”
As for the elephant in the room, setting a wacky comedy in a locale that is currently anything but a source of humor, the play’s focus on romance effectively distances the audience from political concerns, with the brief but noticeable exception of Charles preaching peace and breaking up a stone throwing incident between Jewish and Arab boys. Though that action takes place offstage, it reverberates like a clap of thunder from above.
The Jerusalem Syndrome plays through Dec. 31 at the Theatre at St. Jeans (150 East 76th St.). Evening performances are at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; matinees are at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For tickets, call (212) 935-5820 or visit yorktheatre.org.
Book & Lyrics: Laurence Holzman and Felicia Needleman
Music: Kyle Rosen
Direction: Don Stephenson
Choreography: Alex Sanchez
Sets: James Morgan
Costumes: Fan Zhang
Lighting: Rob Denton
Sound: Josh Liebert
Projections: Caite Hevner
