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ON THE RECORD: Michael John LaChiusa's Little Fish and Rare Recordings of Rodgers
By Steven Suskin
28 Sep 2008
Giving a listen to the premiere cast album of Michael John LaChiusa's Little Fish plus "Richard Rodgers: Command Performance," featuring the composer at the keyboard.
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LITTLE FISH [Ghostlight 8-4430]
Michael John LaChiusa might not be the most prolific current-day theatre composer, but he is certainly the most produced. Since 1994, I count eight-or-so major New York productions. Plus regional shows that have not made it to town, operas, and more.
Musically, LaChiusa is something of a chameleon; the styles change from show to show. One has only to listen to his two Broadway musicals, Marie Christine and The Wild Party — which opened in a four-month stretch of the 1999-2000 season, earning him Tony nominations against himself — to see how he can write in different modes and different moods, more or less at the same time. Those two full-scale, top-of-the-line productions also illustrate LaChiusa's major problem thus far, commercially speaking; as impressive as his scores generally are, the shows don't draw people in.
I'm not talking about drawing in crowds, mind you, although LaChiusa's choice of subject matter tends towards the specialized and quirky. I refer to drawing in the audience, the people already sitting in the theatre watching the shows. Old-timers used to talk about the necessity of grabbing people by the seat of their pants, in the first 15 minutes, and keeping them rooted with you for two-and-a-half hours. LaChiusa's work, by and large, grabs you in spots, then loses you, then grabs you again and on.
The talented composer-lyricist-librettist was indeed able to reach his audience in his early musical, Hello Again. (If you are not familiar with this one, you should immediately get a copy of the cast recording [BMG 62680] and listen to it twice through before doing anything else.) He did it again this past May, with his one-act musical Tres Niñas, which if there is any justice will be remounted someplace soon (with Victoria Clark recreating her role). I have always been impressed with LaChiusa's work, but I have had a difficult time enjoying most of his shows. Intriguing music, intricate ideas, and all sorts of enchantments spring from his keyboard. He has an ability, shared with the keenest composer-lyricists, to go off on what you might call musical tangents; you never know where these will end up, and you get the impression that LaChiusa doesn't either. But as a lyricist, he can go wherever the music takes him, and as a composer he can find a way to set whatever the lyricist comes up with. Thus, his scores are usually adventurous, which earns extra points from me. But something, thus far, has prevented his musicals (with the above-noted exceptions plus First Lady Suite) from drawing me in. And I expect that I am not alone.
This discourse is brought to you courtesy of Little Fish. This was LaChiusa's 2003 musical, with which he resurfaced three years after that exhilarating and disappointing season when he soared and burned like Icarus with Marie Christine and The Wild Party. Little Fish was produced at Second Stage in a respectful and respectable production featuring a handful of interesting "new" musical theatre performers (namely Jennifer Laura Thompson, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Hugh Panaro, and Lea DeLaria). Failing to generate enough excitement for transfer, the show closed after 29 performances and went on the shelf. Last year, Alice Ripley determined to do a production of Little Fish and instigated one at the Blank Theatre Company in Hollywood. Kirsten Sanderson, who goes back with LaChiusa to First Lady Suite, directed, with the cast including Dina Morishita, Samantha Shelton, Greg Jbara, and Chad Kimball among others. It is this production that has brought forth the premiere Little Fish cast album, from Ghostlight.
Listening to the CD replicates my experience at Second Stage. The show starts out on a promising and intriguing note, with Charlotte, a short story writer giving up smoking with a song called "Days" (or "Puff"). It gets the show off to a good start, which only becomes more interesting as the heroine describes her failed affair in Buffalo ("Robert"). At that point, in come other friends, roommates and assorted characters. This is where, when I saw Little Fish back in 2003, the show began to move away from me. I would perk up, periodically, as Mr. LaChiusa presented us with an eclectic, entertaining, or arresting number; but otherwise, I was at a loss to feel anything much for Charlotte or the show as a whole. I've listened to the CD six times now, and Little Fish continues to stubbornly elude me despite some wildly inventive work. This is my problem, I suppose, and not Mr. LaChiusa's; a talented and original artist must continue to create what he hears, not what the audience wants.
But I would guess that my reaction to Little Fish (and Marie Christine, See What I Want to See, Bernarda Alba and others) is not uncommon. Maybe it's the source material he chooses; maybe it's the lack of collaborators. William Finn is a very different writer, and I have no desire to compare the two. But even when Finn writes all the sung and spoken words, he has usually has James Lapine — not only an effective director but a strong playwright — helping shape the material. Perhaps this type of partnership would be beneficial for LaChiusa. Not to help him write, or to restrain his creativity, but to focus and shape the container for the marvelous music he hears. As it is, I can recommend the CD of Little Fish as intriguing and fascinating. At the same time, I regret to admit that I still don't quite get it. Continued...
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