To anybody presently grinding his tooth on the sight of Message in a Bottle, the brand new tour of the West Finish dance present that includes the music of Sting, or to anybody considering one other frigging jukebox musical!?…we forgive you prematurely for the response.
Jukebox musicals, after all, have grow to be as plentiful on the Nice White Method as pigeon dung, and sometimes share comparable high quality. That doesn’t cease producers from littering Broadway and the West Finish with muiscals overstuffed with pop music hits and underwritten plots. Quite the opposite, it would add to the enchantment: vacationers love strolling right into a theater to see a present that affirms their fandom and affords no provocation to deeper ideas or empathy.
Jukebox Smashed
Message in a Bottle, the UK dance musical making its North American premiere on the Hollywood Pantages violates that development. Although set to a completely prerecorded soundtrack of each solo hits by Sting and The Police, and although the performers don’t utter a phrase on stage, the present invitations the viewers to really feel and even suppose one thing about its content material. That doesn’t make it groundbreaking, however in an period of ever-more-pandering Best Hits reveals, it does make it a refreshing anomaly.
As directed and choreographed by Kate Prince, Message in a Bottle tells the story of a household dwelling in a faraway desert nation. Violence interrupts their idyllic life, and the rise of a dictatorship forces them to flee abroad to hunt a brand new dwelling. As soon as they arrive on land once more, they endure life in a refugee camp nearly as violent as the house they fled. Corruption, prostitution, and trauma all infect their minds as they battle to carry on to like and hope that they may discover peace and happiness once more.
If the abstract sounds normal, it’s: the dance nature of the present precludes any deep element concerning the characters or their conditions. Every part right here occurs in pantomime in opposition to minimalist units. The manufacturing owes a lot to the lighting design by Natasha Chivers, which creates a temper to recontextualize Sting’s music.
A New Transfer
That doesn’t stop Message in a Bottle from a number of on-the-nose needle drops: “Roxanne,” after all, offers with one character compelled into prostitution, whereas “Don’t Stand So Shut To Me,” turns into a literalized touch upon gang violence. That these apparent makes use of of songs don’t invite giggles from the viewers testifies to the ability of Prince’s path. Message in a Bottle makes use of pop songs, however that doesn’t imply an viewers can’t take them critically. Different tunes fare a lot better. “Englishman in New York,” a tribute to queer scion Quentin Crisp, turns into a scene of tradition shock. “The Mattress’s Too Massive With out You” evolves from a heartbreak ballad into one character’s post-traumatic stress nightmares.
But the nice innovation right here comes from Prince’s choreography. Like the best work of Jerome Robbins, the motion in Message in a Bottle in some way manages to convey character and plot. The dance reveals character dynamics, each in how the performers dance with and in opposition to each other. Characters really feel distinct, and their relationships have a specificity. Viewers come to know these characters and even care about them. Message in a Bottle may have devolved into bombastic advantage signaling. As a credit score to each Prince and her forged of extraordinary dancers, this story all the time feels honest.
Message in a Bottle strikes a very good stability between pop leisure and avant-garde expressionism, mixing the 2 right into a efficiency each accessible and provocative. At a lean two hours, it by no means drags, and although Sting’s tunes really feel radio-friendly as ever, the dedication of the forged injects them with newfound drama. Jukebox musicals don’t have a status for depth or difficult plots, however Message in a Bottle defies conference to inform a narrative with actual emotional energy that impresses and, above all, deserves to be seen.
Ranking: 8 out of 10 Specs.
Message in a Bottle performs on the Hollywood Pantages Theatre by way of February 11 earlier than persevering with on to the Buell Theatre in Denver (Feb. 13-25) and the Cadillac Theatre in Chicago (Feb. 28-Mar. 3.) A full record of cities and dates might be discovered on the official tour web site.
