On the vast spectrum of playmaking, the New York Musical Festival hews much closer to candy-colored convention than to gritty, gray outré. It’s a Manhattan institution with a Middle American cautiousness about it — a place hospitable to new work that doesn’t push boundaries or ruffle feathers.
Yet “Till,” by far the best of four shows I saw at this year’s festival, may unsettle your very soul. It’s the story of Emmett Till, and its run, which ends Sunday, is timed to coincide with what would have been his 78th birthday, had he not been brutally murdered in the summer of 1955. A black teenager from Chicago who had just turned 14, he was visiting relatives in the Jim Crow South when some white men snatched his future away from him.
With a book by Leo Schwartz and D.C. Cathro, and music and lyrics by Mr. Schwartz, “Till” is the story of that summer — of sweet, funny, rambunctious Emmett (Taylor A. Blackman); his mother, Mamie (Denielle Marie Gray), who’s trying so hard to bring her son up right and keep him safe; and his teasing grandmother, Alma (Judith Franklin), who cheers Emmett and Mamie on.
In a smart and inventive production, beautifully cast and sensitively directed by N.J. Agwuna at the Pershing Square Signature Center, this musical achieves something difficult and rare. It blows the dust of history off a tragedy and brings a martyr to exuberant, mischievous, complicated life. Emmett’s not a saint here, nor is he the corpse in the infamous photo that his mother wanted the world to see. He’s a regular kid — a little cocky, a little dreamy. And like Mamie, we wish the world for him.
With an excellent cast of six lending their rich voices to a score that’s part gospel, part old-fashioned musical (music direction and arrangements are by Lena Gabrielle, choreography is by Kenny Ingram), “Till” cuts between Chicago and Money, Miss., where the white characters are sinister in half-masks and gloves. (Costumes are by Andy Jean.) Emmett, for all his self-assurance, and all the efforts of his family to prepare him, doesn’t truly understand the danger there.
“Till” is not a perfect musical; it's a show still en route to its final form. For now, a couple of Mamie’s songs seem awkwardly placed, disrupting the action and emotion, while the event that incites Emmett’s murderers needs to be depicted with greater clarity so the audience isn’t left puzzled at a crucial moment.
There’s also an unintended tonal danger in the script, which this production skirts but others might fall into: the perception that Emmett, by failing to fathom the perils of a racist society, might in any way share the blame for his death that belongs to his killers alone. As one character reassures another, speaking about something else entirely: “Their actions could never be your fault.”
“Till,” which in its final moments projects that chilling photo, is an inherently political work. So, in a different way, is “Leaving Eden,” a show that feels like half of a very promising musical. With a book and lyrics by Jenny Waxman, and music by Ben Page, it opens with captivating harmonies sung by three women who straddle two eras: the current day and the dawn of humanity.
The contemporary strand of the show doesn’t work. But the half set in the Garden of Eden, where Lilith is the curious, playful, courageous first woman and Adam is her fearful, controlling, dim bulb of a mate, is great fun.
Adam (Ian Ward) is in some ways a nice enough guy — and, hey, he is the only guy around — but he makes a lot of secondhand pronouncements cloaked in God’s word, as a way of getting Lilith (Sarah-Anne Martinez) to behave. She’s hard to control, and control is Adam’s whole game. Eve (Gabrielle McClinton), the second woman, turns out to be easier to manipulate.
The show’s latter-day plot is about Lily (Janet Krupin) and Adam (Azudi Onyejekwe), whose tiresome relationship gets predictably tangled up with a modern-day Eve (Ms. McClinton). But it struggles to mold itself to the biblical parallels.
The best thing about the show, directed by Susanna Wolk with music direction by Nathan Dame, was Ms. Martinez’s New York debut. Comic and poignant, delicate and bold, it was a terrific performance, and I wish I could tell you to see it. But “Leaving Eden,” alas, has already ended its festival run.
“Flying Lessons,” a poppy, madly overstuffed show that continues through Sunday, also boasts a standout performance from an actress I’d never seen before. Her name is Michelle Coben, she has perfect comic pitch, and if I tell you that her voice is part squeaky toy and part foghorn, I want you to understand that she’s somehow a delight to listen to.
Written by Donald Rupe, who also directs (additional music is by Cesar De La Rosa, music direction by Jason M. Bailey), “Flying Lessons” is about Isabella (Esmeralda Nazario), an eighth grader seeking to discover the formula for greatness in her research for a paper on Amelia Earhart (Megan Valle) and Frederick Douglass (Brandon Martin). A smart kid sinking under the weight of too much responsibility at home, she has no sympathy for her beleaguered, financially stretched mother, Lydia (Desiree Montes), but she will by the end of this lesson-teaching show.
What pleasure there is comes from the school scenes, where Isabella’s classmates (including Ms. Coben as the shallow, Kardashian-loving Cynthia) are awkwardly darling — though it strains credulity, and sets up yet another teachable moment, when the “Phantom”-loving Billy (Erick Perafan) sends Madison (Deanna Quintero) into mad-crush mode. Bonus: David Lowe, as their vice principal, is an excellent king dork.
There are geeks aplenty, too, in “Black Hole Wedding,” whose run has already ended. Directed by Craig J. George, with book and lyrics by Katherine Brann Fredricks, music by Paul Nelson and music direction by Nevada Lozano, this is a frantic, messy, hit-you-over-the-head satire that pits an evil chief executive (Sean McDermott) against an idealistic clean-energy engineer named Raymond (Jonathan Miller).
Thank goodness for the soothing presence of Mimi Robinson as Summer, a corporate masseuse who becomes Raymond’s girlfriend — a relationship that’s not terribly believable as romance and might be more entertaining if they were just really close pals. It also might be more interesting if getting kidnapped by the bad guys didn’t turn her into a damsel in distress for Raymond to rescue.
As she tells him, early on, “Relaxed alertness has survival value.” And if she knows that, I bet she can take care of herself.
New York Musical Festival
Through Aug. 4 at various locations; 866-811-4111, nymf.org.
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