Charlie (Ava Delaney) and Jonah (Oliver Richman) hope for the best in Nick Blaemire’s musical, Soon.
Warnings about the consequences of global warming come early and often in the Off-Broadway premiere of Nick Blaemire’s 2015 pop musical, Soon. But they are a false flag. This is no treatise on the fragility of the physical world. Instead, it is the study of a young woman’s psyche as she wends her way through what often feels like a traditional romantic comedy only to arrive at a surprising crisis point where she risks drowning in her own emotional meltdown.
Adrienne (Mylinda Hall) and Steven (Mike Millan) find a common bond.
Every time Charlie (Ava Delaney) turns on the television, calamity fills the screen, and the voice of Wolf Blitzer confidently narrates how extreme heat will soon bring the world to a halt. It’s best, she thinks, to stay inside her comfortable East Village apartment with her pet goldfish, Herschel, and daydream about becoming a successful baker of comforting desserts, or play pranks on her sympathetic but often absent roommate, Steven (Mike Millan). Herschel is not the only creature living a limited life inside a seemingly inescapable small space.
The trees may be ablaze, but this is Manhattan, so groceries can still be ordered, and thus romance finds its way into Charlie’s homestead. Jonah (Oliver Richman) is a nerdy delivery guy with a big heart and a painfully cute sense of humor who instantly falls for Charlie, confesses his love for her (and her goldfish) too soon, and ultimately may just save her life. Over the course of several months, his persistence in wooing her pays off, but still Charlie does not fully commit. Is the possibility of human extinction a real mood killer, or is there something else gnawing at her?
Charlie’s relationship with her mother, Adrienne (Mylinda Hall), is another indicator that things are not as they seem. A boozehound who cradles a martini in one hand and a microphone in the other, Adrienne breaks with the reality of Charlie’s timeline. Her suddenly surreal presence as a lounge singer, along with an ominous burden she carries, causes the audience to consider whether hallucinations and buried trauma are the actual destructive factors at work here.
Under the direction of Will Blum, the production’s first 75 minutes are so soft and gentle that one expects rainbows more than fireballs. Delaney’s quiet performance as Charlie provides little to stir interest at first, and her chemistry with Richman’s Jonah could use a teaspoon less sugar. Millan brings a buoyant personality to the role of Steven, but his is a character that seems overly designed for comic relief, a stereotypical gay roommate who spouts inappropriate remarks about his sex life, delivers a couple of lively songs, serves a technical purpose in pivoting the plot, then vanishes altogether. Hall’s disturbingly boozy Adrienne, however, ignites the story into a dangerous final orbit, fueling Delaney’s portrayal of Charlie into a newfound complexity and a satisfying ending.
Blaemire (who will likely miss witnessing most of this run, as he is currently performing in the Lincoln Center Theater production of A Few Good Men) provides a likable score, admirably handled by a three-piece band who emphasize, with keyboard and strings, an often bossa nova beat. Charlie’s mellow, contemplative numbers are broken up by the occasional rousing tune, like “Avoid the Apocalypse,” where Steven tries to persuade Charlie to join him in the Hamptons, and the there-for-its-own-sake “Bar Mitzvah for the First Jewish Fish,” with Steven and Jonah partaking in some nonsensical bonding. The night’s most stirring number, “Hasn’t Happened,” finds Charlie taking stock of her plight:
I am just a human being
Looking for a counterpart
But that won’t happen
Because this little girl you’re seeing
Doesn’t have the kind of heart
That lets it happen.
Scenic designer Sean Frank has a mixed blessing of a performance space with The Loft at St. Luke’s. Upon climbing to the third floor, the arrival feels very much like being ushered into a New York apartment, right down to a small bar set up for business in the kitchen and a lack of decent air-conditioning. The audience fully occupies the performance area alongside the actors. But with its traverse-stage layout, sight lines are better for those at the front, and vocals are more clearly heard by those not seated directly beside the band. And if the space, in general, is too large and too open to suggest what is supposed to be a cramped downtown two-bedroom, the audience will come to find that it is not the end of the world.
The Out of the Box Theatrics production of Soon plays through Nov. 8 at The Loft at St. Luke’s (308 West 46th St.). Evening performances are at 8 p.m. Monday, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 5 p.m. Friday and Sunday; matinees are at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. For tickets and information, visit ootbtheatrics.com.
Book, Music & Lyrics: Nick Blaemire
Direction: Will Blum
Sound Design: Jordana Abrenica
Set Design: Sean Frank
Costume Design: Gina Ruiz
Lighting Design: Paige Seber
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Charlie (Delaney, left) tries to tolerate her mother, Adrienne (Hall). Photographs by Valerie Terranova.
Charlie (Delaney) keeps Jonah (Richman) at arm’s length.
