The plot of William Finn's semi-autobiographical musical, A New Brain, is not typical fare for the genre: the story of composer Gordon Michael Schwinn and his simultaneous battle with a brain injury and artistic creativity. Though its synopsis is gloomy and a little hard to comprehend out of context, A New Brain as staged by Jack Haldoupis and Blackfriars Theatre is bursting with energy, hilarity, and above all, heart.
The show is nearly all sung-through, apparent right from the start as Gordon sits down at his piano to compose a "spring" song for his aquatic, despotic frog boss, children's TV show personality Mr. Bungee, who appears from time to time in hellish hallucination to offer advice and criticism. His writer's block pours over into his lunch with Rhoda, his agent, and as he vents his frustration at working in a less-than-artistically-supportive atmosphere, he suddenly collapses headfirst into a plate of ziti.
So opens Finn's wacky, heartfelt work, inspired by his own battle with what doctors misdiagnosed as a brain tumor (which later turned out to be an arteriovenous malformation, or burst blood vessel). From Schwinn's admittance in the hospital on, the musical goes from somber to jaunty, heartbreaking to hilarious, while Schwinn creates and hallucinates his songs, using the surrounding environment, his doctors, friends, family, and even mere acquaintances as inspiration. Aside from the similarities in name, profession, and sexual orientation, the fictional Schwinn, faced with the possibility of his own death, contemplates all the work left unfinished, the work that he hasn't even begun - things that most certainly haunted the musical's composer during his own health scare. Out of the trauma came A New Brain, a means of therapy for Finn connected thematically by longtime collaborator and librettist James Lapine.
The star of A New Brain is Finn's complex score, as it well should be, considering the show's subject. The songs range from up-tempo doo-wop to beautiful, simple ballads, and his clever lyrics have rhymes that Sondheim would be envious of (the instance in which he rhymes ‘trait' and ‘predominate' comes to mind). The harmonies and moments of counterpoint are, in a word, wondrous, and are well-performed by Blackfriars' cast; from the first moments of the inspirational, if slightly cliché, "Heart and Music," to the last verses of the show's finale, "I Feel So Much Spring," the audience is in for well-sung, soaring and unbelievably gorgeous melodies.
The simple set works as a nice metaphor for Gordon's mental turmoil; a cylindrical set of high-powered lights hang above the stage, from which a medical curtain is hung and frequently shifted (effective despite being slightly distracting in a few instances). Whenever Gordon is writing, or imagining, his songs, the action takes place within the ring, while real-life moments are often staged in front of the curtain, separate from Gordon's subconscious. The interior Projection is also used creatively throughout the show to flesh out different locales and times, as well as to supplement the fantastical aspects of the plot (including a clever interlude in which Schwinn sings from the inside of an MRI machine, imagining himself on a less-than ideal sailing expedition in the Lee of Cuttyhunk).
With a few exceptions, the cast is stellar; Matt Tappon gives a fine performance as Gordon, and Danny Hoskins is both menacing and charming as the omnipresent Mr. Bungee. Janine Mercandetti is a well-sung, heartfelt Rhoda, and Nicholas D. Rogers as Richard, the lamentably poor, unsuccessful and fat ‘nice' nurse, steals most of his scenes in charmingly pitiful style. The standout here, though, is Jason Mincer as Gordon's lover, Roger. Mincer not only sings gorgeously, but also gives the most convincing performance, ranging from sickeningly sweet to heartbroken, and ultimately to a state of unwavering gratitude. Sarah Peters, as Mimi Schwinn, though in fine voice, plays up the camp too much for a mother on the verge of emotional collapse and completely in denial about her son's mortality. Her distracting dancing and mugging during one of the show's most poignant songs, "The Music Still Plays On," Mimi's elegy for Gordon, wholly removes any of the song's simplistic but powerful emotional point. Dawn M. Sargent as the Homeless Lady is similarly distracting, trying too hard to land laughs instead of giving an authentic performance.
Though, by the end, Gordon is "different, but still the same," his newfound perceptions about life and his relationships ultimately help him create the ‘spring' song he had been struggling with at the show's start. The song both acts as a nice bookend of sorts and helps to convey the newfound optimism and fervor with which Schwinn has decided to live his life, and simply states the show's overall message about those very subjects. As a whole, A New Brain leaves its audience feeling the same way Gordon does - life is a cause that you have to take up and, though at times scary, is something that must be lived to the fullest.
