Songs for a New World @ The Fleetwood Project
Photos by Janessa Jones Photography
—Jan Farrington
Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World is something different: more a concert with staging than a traditional musical, the show is a series of story-songs, loosely connected, each with its own characters—and all on a subject that ought to interest every one of us right now. How, how do we choose where we’re going in this life? When, if ever, is it time to “jump ship” from a familiar world, one that’s changed or disappointed us, or made us feel threatened? Is there a “New World” somewhere for us? These are stories of change and transition—of all the times we humans have to decide how, where, (and with whom) we’re going to spend our time on this Earth.
The Fleetwood Project, a lively company housed in a nicely re-purposed movie theater in downtown Mansfield, makes interesting choices in the shows it puts on, and this one was worth seeing—and more specifically, worth hearing. The ensemble cast of singer-actors includes several fine voices known from bigger venues around the area, and both the relative newcomers and the veteran stage folk seem genuinely engaged in the show. There’s good direction from Stevie Dawn Carter, music direction by Cole Casey (also in the cast), and choreography by Melissa Martin and Carter.
The Tony-winning Brown, who went on after Songs (1995) to do Parade, The Next Five Years, and The Bridges of Madison County, has a knack for blending theater lyrics with pop-rock, gospel, and other strains of American music. Gospel takes the lead with a song that starts “Lord, we take this journey….” (“On the Deck of a Spanish Sailing Ship, 1492”), with fine singer AJ Martinez in the lead. Araceli Radillo is funny and rapid-fire as a Manhattan wife whose husband ignores her threats to take “Just One Step” off the balcony of their high-rise apartment. Lauran Kinard is terrific in the intense “I’m Not Afraid of Anything,” She has a great Broadway belter’s style, and volume that can tune down, perfectly controlled, when the message is more intimate.
Keith J. Warren’s rousing voice rings out in “She Cries” (and in plenty of the ensemble numbers), the mini-drama of a man who keeps trying to leave the woman he loves (?), only to have her tears stop him…again. “Never look in a woman’s eyes,” he advises. “Give her a minute/I promise you’re in it/To stay.” Isaiah Dryer, Cole Casey and Martinez (with Whitney Bohannon and Radillo) wonder why “The River Won’t Flow” (as Mama promised) for them in their hard lives; it’s a rocking,gospel-tinged number. Dryer also shines on lead vocals in “The Steam Train,” the ensemble’s toe-tapping first act closer.
Samantha Ramirez is funny in “Surabaya-Santa,” a Kurt Weill-style lament by the neglected Mrs. Santa. “I set you free, Nick/Goodbye, Nick/Go drive your reindeer through the sky, Nick!” Bohannon’s clear, true voice (though she’s overpowered by the sometimes too-loud recorded music score) does a very sweet job with “Christmas Lullaby” (“And I will be like Mother Mary/With a blessing in my soul…”), and Martinez comes on strong in the prison-drama “King of the World.” Dryer scores as the lead of “Flying Home,” another great gospel-infused song (“Heavenly Father take my hand/Carry me on…”).
In the end, they’re still on the journey—a new world still calling, though they haven’t reached it. But the humor, strength, and grit of the songs we’ve heard helps us believe the final song’s closing line: “We’ll be fine.” For these times, maybe that (and some good music) is enough to hope for.
WHEN: Through April 2
WHERE: The Farr-Best Theater, 109 N. Main Street, Mansfield TX
