This new musical sang well on LSD, but tripped over James Lapine's pedestrian book

If you do not take recreational drugs but your friend takes drugs, you will know this feeling. Everyone around you has smoked, snuffed, dripped or injected something, and they all had a great time. They all thought their conversation about light bulbs was interesting. On the other hand, you know they are talking nonsense. They are all taking drugs. They are boring.

You can replicate this feeling by watching the new musical "Flying Over the Sunset" at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in LCT on Monday. Or, to be more precise, you can see the second act of this 160-minute musical.

If you are not fully involved, the first act will arouse people's interest. Perhaps too much was promised at the beginning: three 1950s idols appeared on stage one after another, and they had almost nothing in common-except for Gary Grant, Claire Booth Luce and Aldous · The fact that Huxley did this LSD was not illegal at the time. James Lapine's book introduces everyone when he or she takes medication for the first time. Tony Yazbeck played an unusually stiff movie star idol who performed hallucinogenic experiments under the supervision of a psychiatrist (Nehal Josh). Carmen Cusack, who plays the political right-wing Luce, is fascinated by her southern charm and feminist confidence. Harry Harden Parton played his Henry Higgins a few seasons ago as the British-born "Brave New World" author.

Luce and Huxley are more adventurous than Grant. They took the drug with the help of the guru Gerald Hurd (Robert Serra), who appears as a certain narrator in the book by Lupping. Of course, the posters and advertisements of the show did not feature this person. However, for those who know their history of drug abuse, Hurd is a well-known writer who introduced Bill Wilson, the founder of Anonymous Alcoholics, to LSD. They think this may be a cure for alcoholism. Heard's close friendship with religious scholar Huston Smith led Timothy Leary to take the drug and promote it as a ban.

Little of Heard's biography enters "flying over the sunset". Lapine imagined Heard as a simple person who dispenses medicine to the stars. He was also a homosexual, a rather pathetic person as depicted by Robert Serra. Before we understand the strange focus of this musical on LGBTQIA as a whole, let us return to the three famous names.

When Grant, Luce and Huxley were taking LSD, they suddenly sang songs composed by composer Tom Kit and lyricist Michael Corey. Throughout "Flying Over the Sunset", Luce's character received the best tunes, many of which were lovely ballads and waltz, which were subtly expanded into ensemble pieces. Or are these the best because Cusack is by far the most accomplished singer of the four principals?

No matter who is singing, once the vocals begin, the huge set (made by Beowulf Boritt) will change shape to reflect the illusion projection (made by 59 Productions), visualizing what the characters are currently experiencing in their minds; colors Deeper, the physical world disappears. Laping is also a director, he handles many elements like a master. Fortunately, no one was drawn into the orchestra by Boritt's large and moving set.

When Hurd, Luce and Huxley finally met Grant for the first time in the Brown Derby, from F. Scott Fitzgerald to George Cook, Hurd-giggle! blush! Simpler! -There may be one or two fast. Lapine talked about this potentially fascinating quartet at lunch and had little other influence. In any case, in record time, someone planned to dump acid in Luce's wonderful beach house in Malibu.

These three celebrity characters are not a perfect triangle. The emotional impact that LSD exposed to Grant and Luce was much deeper than anything that Huxley had ever experienced in the past. Luce lost her mother (Michele Ragusa) and teenage daughter (Kanisha Marie Feliciano) in different car accidents. Grant's mother put on a dress for the little boy to perform on stage; later, he thought she was dead, in fact, his father had sent her into a shelter. The most memorable of these three LSD trips was that Grant met his young self, Archie Rich (Atticus Weir), who wore a white ruffled dress (Tony Les Leigh James' costume). Their tap-dance pas de deux (choreographed by Michel Dorrance) started enthusiastically and quickly turned into a competition that exhausted the older men on a tour in Yazbek. In the process, Ware showed a young actor's most wonderful gender smooth performance since Jodie Foster (Jodie Foster) shocked the film industry in "Alice No Longer Live Here".

Huxley's story is very different. There is no trauma to expose, but his advantage over Cary and Clare is that he wrote "Brave New World"—social conservatives are attacking him. In their view, this is propagating thinking-changing drugs.  

Before these characters set off for The Bu, they replayed the psychedelic title they sang. It is now an exciting ensemble, and Act 2 looks more promising.

This fall, Kitt (in collaboration with lyricist Brian Yorkey) also composed songs for the new musical "Guest" that recently closed in the public theater. The composer deserves better reviews than he got there, although the show did expose a weakness. An angry eleven o'clock number in "The Visitor" is gone. Kit is imaginative about ballads and waltz, but he struggles when the subject needs something more muscular.

In the second act of "Flying over the Sunset", everyone is sour together. Isn't anyone going all the way? Like, a very, very bad trip? Grant met Little Archie again, this time at sea and almost drowned. Musically, the scene starts with the cheerful "Three British", but when Grant struggled, Kit left it to his coordinator Michael Starrobin and asked him to add some dissonance to the small song. sound.

For many reasons, the comic "Rocket Ship" was considered a bad trip. Here, Grant imagined himself as a huge penis, and Yazbek wore something similar to a condom on top of his head. This song exposes another weakness of Kitt: he is not good at pop songs or any type of comics. Even Korie's rhyme could not save this complete fire.

Grant's tango with his next co-star in the movie, Sophia Rowland (Emily Pineberg), is only slightly less confusing and embarrassing. "I like leadership" should question the actor's masculinity, but in the end talked more about the Italian blockbuster, he is a fictional character in his imagination. Sophia did hint that Grant might be more complicated in bed. She mentioned that her former roommate Randolph Scott (Randolph Scott) temporarily annoyed him, and then quickly changed the subject, as if to say that even though Little Archie was wearing a dress, let's not explore the title. Laping provides a sentence or two to describe the bisexuality of Huxley's late wife (Laura Schoop).

At the end of "Flying Over Sunset", Heard was completely deformed because Luce called him "pansy". He was very angry, chopped up more than usual, stomped and demanded an apology.

Maybe Lupping owes this character an apology. Earlier in the show, Hurd and Luce stared at Grant while sunbathing on the beach. Her libido was treated with composure and a little bit of normalcy. Hearing pee, so that we can laugh at the character when he is running away, with our legs akimbo, covering the wet crotch with a towel, and putting on someone else’s oversized pants, making him look more ridiculous than his matine sex object In real life, there may be no problem in serving him.

Hurd is not as famous as the other three. But he is not just a drug dealer across from Highway 1. He is a truly accomplished person. However, Lalpin left it to the last scene so that anyone can present any 35 books about his life to this historian, science writer, public lecturer, educator, and philosopher. Book. Their lack of curiosity may make sense. Indeed, the focus of "Flying Over the Sunset" seems to be exposing the tragedy of white privileges. To their questions about his childhood, Hilde replied that he was "very lonely". But we already know it! He is gay. This is the 1950s. What else can he be?

Lapine does not have a good track record in this regard. He adapted Moss Hart's memoir "One Act" into a stage play. Obviously, he never asked himself why a talented theater guy would write a whole book about his youth, and he never mentioned thinking once. Going to bed.

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