“Ordinary Days’ by Adam Gwon, is not an ordinary musical.
According to composer/lyricist/ and everything in between, Gwon describes his
piece as a ‘through sung musical’, ‘a narrative musical’ with ‘story songs’.
And he’s right, of course! Yours truly considers it a chamber piece and all of
the above.
“Ordinary Days” under the direction of Matthew C. Graber, now
on stage at InnerMission Productions located just behind the space that
Diversionary Theatre occupies, will be playing through Aug 12th.
It’s a relatively small musical, by musical theater standards.
Some liken it to “The Last Five Years” by Jason Robert Brown seen
recently on Ion’s stage that had two characters. In both a story is told
through the characters’ experiences and perspectives in their every day lives.
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| Patrick Mayuyu, Jamie Channell Guzman, Kym Pappas and Brent Roberts |
“Ordinary Days” has four characters and details the
vicissitudes each one living in New York City, the city that never sleeps, experiences
while real life around them is happening. ‘Five Years’ is more of a love affair
gone badly, in retrospect.
“Ordinary Days” premiered in 2012 and has been making the
rounds almost every year in theatres across the country since and now audiences
in San Diego are the recipients of InnerMissions first musical and west coast
premiere of this appealing work.
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| Kym Pappas and Brent Roberts |
I remember as a younger version of myself on trips to New
York for theatre and visiting friends that it was always a ‘place I loved to
visit, but not a place I would love to live’.
In a series of short vignette’s Clair (Kym Pappas), Jason
(Brent Roberts), Deb (Jamie Channell Guzman) and Warren (Patrick Mayuyu) (“One
By One”), mostly outsiders looking for some companionship, connection and or
stability in their lives, cross paths in some of the most unusual ways.
Mid 30’s Claire and Jason are about to move in together (both navigating sets of belongings into one
small space brought back memories of dorm living). “The Space Between” tells of
how easy Jason thought the move in would be,
(there were fourteen blocks between her place and mine’).
He’s ready, we think, for this romance to take off. She, on
the other hand (“Let Things Go” -‘you’ve got out -of –date planners and dog
eared postcards’) isn’t quite so sure.
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| Jamie Channell Guzman and Patrick Mayuyu |
Twenty something Deb (“Don’t Wanna Be Here”) is a transplant
from a place ‘in the middle of nowhere…my hometown was like a suburb of a
suburb…I actually lived on a cul-de-sac…that’s the definition of a dead end”.
When she finally ends up in New York, she doesn’t want to be
there either. Now she is in grad school after dropping out of grad school in
her hometown, reading Virginia Wolf (“Dear Professor Thompson”) and working on
her PhD Thesis.
To Warren ‘the city tends to make him invisible’. He’s house
and cat sitting for an artist friend…who got arrested for painting ‘pithy
sayings across the city’. To him it’s just “Another day out in the metropolis”
as he hands out flyers ‘with sayings that his painter friend painted on the
sidewalks and walls of buildings. Some call that graffiti.
Warren also collects bits and pieces of the city that others
have either discarded or lost. (”Life Story”) And that brings us to the Deb and
Warren connection.
Deb misplaced her composition/hand-bound book with all her
thesis notes in it; long Xerox scraps ‘that drips with old school flair’. You guessed it. Warren found it in Union
Station. After looking through it he noticed that the last entry was that day’s
date and for good measure an email address.
In one of the funniest segments after contacting Deb about her binder, Warren
suggests they meet at The Metropolitan Museum (“Saturday at the Met”) “in room
twenty-one there’s a landscape by Monet”. There he will hand off the
notebook.
After bragging about her ‘irrefutable sense of direction’: “I
don’t understand why I can’t find my way through the fu**ing Metropolitan Museum”.
It goes downhill from there in a series of wrong turns, confusing artists;
“Monet?” “Manet.” Finally, they accidentally
find each other almost tripping over one an other.
In the meantime Jason and Clair are also at the museum but
find themselves in different sections complicating their relationship even
further. “He likes the masters.” “I prefer wackier things”.
Throughout the piece, while the couples crisscross each
other, they never meet, nor are they seen together except for the final
“Rooftop Duet”.
All four experienced actors take their turns revealing their
innermost thoughts, ambitions and emotional upheavals to the tunes of Gwon'smusic.
Mayuyu is perfect as the cheerful hail -fellow -well- met
character Warren. He never wavers in his outlook as the ‘seeking beauty and
truth’ guy in all he sees even as he contemplates his future, that's hanging somewhere
between budding artist and not looking beyond today. (“Beautiful”)
Ms. Guzman has the more difficult of Gwon’s music as she
navigates his story songs and patter music in what some might compare to
Stephen Sondheim’s dialogue music. Some of the lyrics are difficult to follow
but you get the picture.
Her timing is near perfect in spite of oft times playing catch-up with the piano, yet her penchant (facial
expressions) for comedy rings true. She is the cynic of the four, but fun to watch, none the less. Both she and Mayuyu are the engaging and fun to be with couple.
Robert ‘s tenor voice is the most pleasant of the foursome as
he tries to make sense of Clair’s moods. They too wind their way through a more
down than up relationship. “Favorite
Places” tells the story that his favorite places are the places he’s never
been. “All of my most favorite places are places I’ve never been.) That song resonated with me.
Kym Pappas’ Claire is the independent single that wants things
her way as she surfaces to be the alpha in that relationship. It takes a while
but the chemistry does begin to flow after a comeback between the two hits a
more conciliatory, emotional and meaningful turn in “I’ll Be Here”, reaching back to the horrors of 9/11and a loss she suffered then. It's a heartbreaking tune and done especially well by Pappas.
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| Jamie Channell Guzman and Patrick Mayuyu |
Graber manages to keep the production moving along at a
reasonable pace, coming in at ninety or so minutes. A bit more tightening will
come as the show settles in.
For some light, and a thoughtful night of musical stories
aimed at entertaining without drowning in sentimentality Gwon’s “Ordinary Days”
taps into a different genre aimed at telling it like it is.
Enjoy.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: Through Aug. 12th
Organization: InnerMission Productions
Phone: 619.324.8970
Production Type: Musical
Where: 4545 Park Blvd. San Diego, CA 92116
Ticket Prices: $25.00
Web: innermissionproductions.org
Venue: Diversionary Black Box
Photo: InnerMission
