A radio show. A literal closet. A folkloric town. Ebenezer Scrooge’s home. A cave. A figurative closet. German-occupied France. Salem, Massachusetts.
9 settings. 9 stories. 9 opening numbers.
That’s what occupies the mind of Noel Carey, the composer featured on the penultimate evening of the New Writers @ 54 series presented by Feinstein’s 54 Below. This summer series showcased exciting new work by emerging voices in New Musical Theatre.
In “Opening Numbers,” Noel gifted the audience with an up-close and personal portrait of the musicals swirling in his mind and out through the piano keys. We were introduced to almost a decade of ideas that are in all phases of development – some were written in college. Some have premiered regionally. Some are designed for children…
..and some, according to Noel, are “nowhere even close to having the rights to this, but” couldn’t help imagining an opening number to a Hocus Pocus musical that truly tickled the crowd in a finale that can only be called a Musical-Nostalgia-Roller-Coaster featuring Bonnie Milligan, Natalie Walker, and Abby Goldfarb as the Sanderson sisters.
The ability to command a room is a skill possessed by many artists. But to transform a room energetically multiple times and bring 150 people along for every ride? That’s a unique talent. And Noel Carey is the king of it.
Remember those 9 settings?
A radio show. A literal closet. A folkloric town. Ebeneezer Scrooge’s home. A cave. A figurative closet. German-occupied France. Salem, Massachusetts. …and a partridge in a pear tree?
Diving deeper, that means we’re crossing temporal boundaries from colonial America, the Golden Age of Hollywood, 19th Century England, mid-century Europe, and atemporal fantasy-scapes that evoke both high comedic antics as well as somber, thriller-esque chills.
What shines even brighter than this intelligent exploration of cross-cultural references and joyful play is the development of character in each number. With a concert-premise that would seemingly do nothing but introduce and tease, we learned so much about each of the characters in action.
A strong cast of actor/singers under the direction of Max Friedman helped bring each song and thus each world to life.
Highlights included Julia Mattison’s performance of “I Know Exactly What You’re Thinking” from Seven Minutes in Heaven (the literal closet) in which a young retainer-burdened girl readies herself and her closet-mate “Joth” for a little light making-out.
We then leapt to Hollywood on an MGM-esque lot and met a quintet of actor/writers struggling to develop an authentic love story for the studio’s next picture. Perhaps because they’re looking straight ahead and missing what’s right in front of them (the figurative closet). This chatty, layered number featured the talents of Andrew Kober, Brittany Proia, Natalie Walker, Abby Goldfarb, and Noel Carey himself as the frustrated composer.
That wasn’t the only instance in which Noel adopted a character of his own creation throughout the evening. And perhaps most striking of all was when he said goonight to the crowd in the role of…himself, Noel Carey. The song “Whatever Occupies My Mind” offered an intimate serenade that took a dreamy turn, putting the perfect button on the evening, as if we had just truly spent the last hour in Noel’s mind and he was saying “thanks for stopping by.”
I think I speak for everyone in the house that evening when I say, “thanks for having us, Noel. Let’s do this again real