REVIEW: “Sing Street” at New York Theatre Workshop shows promise but underwhelms
Jakeim Hart, Max William Bartos, Zara Devlin, Sam Poon, Brenock O’Connor, Brendan C. Callahan, and Gian Perez in “Sing Street”. Photo by Matthew Murphy
Given the price of admission and a track record that includes noted Broadway leaps for hits like “Rent”, “Once”, and “Hadestown”, audiences at New York Theatre Workshop in the East Village are easily forgiven for forgetting that the exceptionally well-curated works presented there are often very much still in progress. “Sing Street”, which opened tonight, provides a good reminder.
This undercooked new musical based on the eponymous 2016 hit indie film by John Carney (“Once”, “Begin Again”) is a sweet coming-of-age story set in working class 1982 Dublin, Ireland—one with a gorgeous heart that is primed to sing, but that got sadly lost in its all-too-quick journey from the big screen to the small stage under the helm of director Rebecca Taichman (“Indecent”).
Amid economic and martial woe at home, 16-year old Conor (Brenock O’Connor) transfers to Synge Street, a free, Christian, all-boys school where he catches the crabby eye of principal Brother Baxter (Martin Moran), dodges a bully, and starts his own rock band in an impromptu bid to impress Raphina (Zara Devlin), a mysterious 18-year old amateur model and local hangabout with an unseen older boyfriend who loves Phil Collins.
With his reclusive, older brother Brendan (Gus Halper) acting as New Wave sage—and fellow student Darren (Max William Bartos) as the group’s manager—Conor hones the delightful “futuristic” 80s synthpop sound of Sing Street, now an official school band, rehearsing in a member’s basement and shooting ersatz single-take music videos on location about town with the aid of a VHS tape recorder. As Conor and Raphina grow closer, his parents decide to divorce, and Brother Baxter comes down hard on the ragtag group of would-be rockers who borrow their mothers’ clothing and increasingly experiment with hair and makeup.
Playwright Enda Walsh collaborated with songwriters Gary Clark and John Carney to adapt the film to the stage, and along the way it lost the sharpness, charm, and magic that made it great in the first place. There isn’t much conflict in the story—certainly not enough to propel two hours and 30 minutes worth of action—and all of it arrives with diffusely defined low-stakes. A fantastical ending that should sweep and carry the audience away is instead dull, ill-focused, and mis-dramatized.
Beyond the dreary economic environment of 1982 Ireland, the uproar of Conor’s home life—to which he and his siblings seem oddly unaffected—and the plot line of a bully that goes nowhere, Brother Baxter becomes the only worthy antagonist in the story, though he isn’t properly set up to be.
Despite being a story about a young man and his band, the audience learns next to nothing about the other six members who are assembled in approximately one minute of stage time—even the kids in “School of Rock” were more fleshed out—and yet form a superbly cast group of young actor-musicians who provide the accompaniment for a mix of pop hits from the likes of Depeche Mode and Duran Duran and a series of pastiche copies by Messrs. Clark and Carney (I particularly enjoy “The Riddle of the Model”) meant to be by Conor.
Almost all the songs are diegetic, that is part of the reality of the story experienced by the characters, so it was confusing to me in act two when a song suddenly wasn’t. Indeed, nearly every musical moment derives from Sing Street, the band, performing Conor’s compositions, instead of as non-diegetic songs that might reveal the interior life of the musical’s characters. This makes for clumsy dramaturgy that keeps the story surface-deep, depriving it of the value-add that the form of musical theatre can provide. Otherwise, “Sing Street” is not much more than a play with music.
On balance, the story leans too heavily on Conor’s family—centering a good deal around his brother, Brendan—and not nearly enough on the band or in exploring what it means to these boy’s lives and their community in the moment in which it is being told. Still, I believe “Sing Street” remains a property that has the potential to be a knockout on stage. It just isn’t there, yet. Back to the workshop!
Bottom Line: “Sing Street” is an undercooked musical (play with music, really) adaption of the 2016 hit indie Irish film. A sweet coming-of-age story with a gorgeous heart, the stage version gets none of the charm or quirkiness of the film right, and the thin, surface-deep story does not sustain its length. Still, it remains a promising property that has the potential to be a knockout on stage, perhaps after more time in development.
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“Sing Street”
New York Theatre Workshop
79 East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003
Running Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes (one intermission)
Opening Night: December 16, 2019
Final Performance: January 26, 2020
Tickets
