By Samantha Sheets
Donny, who dreams of becoming famous off his music, decides to form an all-veteran bandstand in hopes of winning a competition and going to New York City. This band, for all those involved becomes a coping mechanism to forget what had been seen at war. The musical here makes an interesting choice by making most of the veteran band members hold a specific trope or condition of those who’ve returned from war. Donny Novitski, is the pianist and is clearly struggling with survivor’s guilt over the death of his friend. Jimmy Campbell’s (James Nathan Hopkins) a saxophone and clarinet player who is now becoming a lawyer, focusing entirely on getting through college thanks to the GI Bill. Davy Zlatic, (Brandon J. Ellis) plays bass and turns to drinking to cope, becoming an alcoholic. Nick Radel, (Alex Bender) is a trumpet player who now unhappily teaches and has bouts of anger. Lieutenant Wayne Wright, (Geoff Packard) who plays trombone, suffers severe OCD and has trouble turning back into a civilian, running his family like a unit he commands. Lastly, Johnny Simpson (Joe Carroll) plays the drums, but has memory issues after a car accident. Inevitably, Julia reluctantly becomes the group’s singer, filling the required veteran quota through Michael. The show bares similarities to the Tony Award winning show “Once”, by not only residing in the same theatre, but all the actors actually play the instruments they hold on stage. As a former clarinet player in a wind ensemble, I was thoroughly impressed by the cast’s ability to perform on all levels. While the band itself was captivating, after the formation of the band is when the show begins to fall flat. With the minimalistic set remaining stagnate and the constant gigs played by the newly formed bandstand at bars, the pacing of the show slowed down immensely. Both Julia and Donny break the flow of rehearsals and gigs through their budding relationship, another fault of the show. The show breaks the formula of traditional musicals by opting out of having an antagonist (Expect for MGM briefly at the end) and, yet decides to incorporate an unneeded love story. While the show tries to balance and juggle the bandstand story with it’s love story, the two plots fail to harmonize. What results is too much time spent pandering to romantic cliches as opposed to devoting more time to the consequences of recovering after war. That being said, the duet shared between Julia and Donny in act II entitled, “This is Life” is one of the best numbers in the musical, with Cott and Osnes making the most of their romance as they try to avoid admitting their obvious chemistry. While the pacing of the first act was off, the Tony Award Winning choreography shines through. It is especially evident in “Love Will Come and Find Me Again” when the dancers ecstatically take the stage and Julia is held upside down while singing. Luckily, the shows pace picks up in its second act. Whether it is because of the change of location from Ohio to New York City, or the lack of repetitive bar scene performances, I was glad to see a progression occur. The reveal of Donny’s connection to Michael’s death is also worth mentioning. Although it was not the most surprising revelation, both Osnes and Cott sell the emotion they are pitching on stage. You can see Cott shaking and choking back tears as he recounts the story of Michael’s death. Osnes, meanwhile, is begging him to stop, despite having spent all of act I trying to talk about Michael; she runs off in hysterics, Act II also held the best number in the entire show, the chilling “Welcome Home Boys (Finale)”. After making it to the finals in the bandstand competition, the band decides to change their set last minute after learning they will lose their initial song’s rights if sung. So they sing “Welcome Home Boys”, a song about the veterans in the band and their sacrifices. The juxtaposition of the song’s quick pace and jazzy beat, contrasted with its heartbreaking lyrics, struck a chord into the entire audience. Osnes belts her heart out as it’s worn on her sleeve, all while keeping up with the tempo and crying simultaneously. As an audience member, I was overwhelmed and tears rolled from my face, just as they did hers. It was a magnificent number orchestrated to perfection. The live band, for it’s part, played spectacularly, keeping up with the tempo and time, each member getting a small solo as Osnes describes them in song. While the show struggles to find its footing, the entire second act easily makes up for that, thus making it a show worth seeing. Osnes and Cott hold powerhouse voices and the songs help their star quality shine through. The band, meanwhile, ultimately make the show, driving not only it’s plot but also it’s music. It may not be a show you need to see twice, but the amount of fun the cast has on stage makes it noteworthy to witness.
I would lastly like to thank New York Theatre, specifically Jonathan Mandell for giving me the opportunity to see this production. Bandstand closes on September 19th, and I am grateful to have seen it before it departure.
1 Comment
Samantha Sheets - Author of the article
9/28/2017 12:37:05 pm
Please note: There is a slight error in the article. The show closed on September 17th, not on September 19th.
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