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10 Million Miles at the Atlantic Theatre
Jun. 2nd, 2007 07:04 pmSaw a new musical called 10 Million Miles at the Atlantic Theatre this afternoon, and I gotta tell you, I was charmed. It was a lovely, modest production, with a total of four - count 'em - four actors: Matthew Morrison playing Duane (the romantic lead, so to speak), Irene Molloy playing Molly (the other romantic lead), and Mare Winningham and Skipp Sudduth as the rest of the women and men in the cast.
First of all, I liked the music -- and these days, short of anything by Sondheim, that's saying a lot. I am really, really not fond of the pop/soft rock/belt-to-indicate-strong-emotion school of musicals that are so popular these days (and one of my favorite things about Shamalot was how it made fun of them). It was sort of a soft Country-Western sound that was really enjoyable; the band, which was stationed above the action, was lively without drowning out the singers. (Of course, everybody was miced, but you can't help that these days.)
The story was also modest and excellent -- basically, it was about two working-class young people whose lives were already on a downward spiral and who find, lose, and then find each other again. Their characters, and the people they meet along the way (played by the other two actors) felt very true to life without overt sentimentality. The set was made up of a red truck (center stage, and pushed around by stagehands as needed) and a backdrop; water towers and oil rigs lined either side of the stage.
And the actors were fantastic. I'm a great fan of Mare Winningham, so I expected a fine performance from her, but all the actors were great.
The only problem with this production is that it is not flashy, loud, or overtly "shocking" (which was the selling point of last year's Spring Awakening, which everyone seems to have liked except me), so it will probably not move to Broadway. But perhaps that's for the best; something like this would be lost in a Broadway theatre.
First of all, I liked the music -- and these days, short of anything by Sondheim, that's saying a lot. I am really, really not fond of the pop/soft rock/belt-to-indicate-strong-emotion school of musicals that are so popular these days (and one of my favorite things about Shamalot was how it made fun of them). It was sort of a soft Country-Western sound that was really enjoyable; the band, which was stationed above the action, was lively without drowning out the singers. (Of course, everybody was miced, but you can't help that these days.)
The story was also modest and excellent -- basically, it was about two working-class young people whose lives were already on a downward spiral and who find, lose, and then find each other again. Their characters, and the people they meet along the way (played by the other two actors) felt very true to life without overt sentimentality. The set was made up of a red truck (center stage, and pushed around by stagehands as needed) and a backdrop; water towers and oil rigs lined either side of the stage.
And the actors were fantastic. I'm a great fan of Mare Winningham, so I expected a fine performance from her, but all the actors were great.
The only problem with this production is that it is not flashy, loud, or overtly "shocking" (which was the selling point of last year's Spring Awakening, which everyone seems to have liked except me), so it will probably not move to Broadway. But perhaps that's for the best; something like this would be lost in a Broadway theatre.
