Reviews: Love, NY @ The Capital Fringe

Love, NY @ The Capital Fringe Festival on July 26, 2013

             

          “The Fringe Festival” is an event that goes on in major cities all over the Western World each year. Well… at least three major cities to my knowledge. From my understanding, the ‘fringe festival’ started in Scotland on the outskirts of a world-wide theatre festival: companies couldn’t get slots in the original festival so they created their own venues on the ‘fringes’. And then it grew and morphed, became too incredibly famous, too incredibly crowded, and actors are poor – how can you expect ten actors who are struggling just to make rent, let alone eat, to go to Scotland for a month? So then New York started a “Fringe Festival” which popped up around the ‘Off-Off Broadway’ scene. Then DC caught on in 2005, and now The Capital Fringe is in the near-end of its eighth summer festival. As they proudly boast on their site, they offer “18 days, 130 shows, 745 performances, 18 venues, 8 bar taps, 8^th Summer Festival.” It was on day 13 of The Capital Fringe, that I saw Love, NY by Robert Ricicki & Michael Ruby.

            When walking out of the strange church/ theatre in the middle of Washington, DC, the one word that came to mind was “relatable.” Love, NY is a 70-minute one-act musical about 20-somethings exploring and experiencing love in New York today. In reality, the show could be set in any city, in any town really, just switch out the obligatory references to Madison Avenue, Columbia and Broadway, and it would work just as well.

At its core, Love, NY is about a confused generation of in-betweens who want to be adults, but at the same time don’t actually want to leave the simplicity of childhood either. The two leading males within the show are Dan, a ‘young professional’ in advertising who’d rather be in film school, and Benji, a recent college graduate, just started off in the city and experiencing the thrills and ills of a girlfriend in the city. There are also three female leads fitting all your average city ‘types’, the over-sexed, grad student proudly still living off mommy and daddy, the optimistic young teacher unlucky in love, and the selfish and bitter struggling actress. The characters are all people you either know or have met at some point in your early-20’s, and for most of us, you will see yourself on that stage, because you are “A Nice Young Man” who was “Waiting for Laura,” but is now just “Freakin’ Out” and you “Want To Go Back” because real-life is “Not What I Thought It Would Be.” Which is why I came out of the theatre with the word ‘relatable’ in my mind.

While it may not be a show that changes lives, or even stirs deep thought, beyond our growing problem of 20-somethings who rely on their parents, it is an entertaining show that anyone in or past their 20’s can relate to.

As for this production, this was the first staged production of the show, with a cast of eight, 5 females and 3 males. It was entertaining, clearly presented, and with great direction and understandable casting. The actor’s did well, they embodied the characters but I found myself constantly wondering if they should continue singing. The man who play Benji, Christopher Rios, was a swing, to be fair, and at times his words were rushed, muddled and confused, but as far as I was concerned, it fit the character perfectly. Perfectly up until the line ‘I though you were an arrogant prick,’ by Daniel, because Mr. Rios just comes across as awkward, uncertain, nerdy and adorably confused with life.

The other male lead in this production, Daniel played by Lou Steele, was a fine actor who might want take some refresher voice lessons. He was a very good vocalist, I’m not trying insult, but it did seem like he was trying to mimic a certain vocal style to a point that some of the integrity of the vowels was lost. The difference between ‘poppy’ and ‘whiney’ is such a fine line. Other than the occasional spread vowel, Lou delivered a wonderfully confused young man, confused to the point of being an asshole to those around him.

The women of this show, oh the women of this show… All three fulfilled some stereotype, and yes, while stereotypes are based on true people, maybe I don’t want to see it in theatre. Or rather, not every female needs to encapsulate a different stereotype. Surprise me, people! I found myself only caring about Emily, because through-out the show, she was the only character willing to see beyond her own selfish wants and actually had real interactions with people. The other two characters were very self-oriented and caused their own unhappiness through their unwillingness to see beyond their own opinions.            

The Ensemble, though it be but little, is mighty – made up of two women and one man brought a lovely flare of fun to this show. The two women were a sort of back-up dancers for a number of the characters solo numbers, and the one man had one of the greatest cameo parts in the entire show as the old tyrannical German woman from Emily’s apartment complex. With a simple headscarf and hot pink walking cane, Mr. Carter embodied a tough, old German woman, both defiant and protective of Emily.

If I hadn’t seen Love, NY on its last night on stage, I would encourage anyone looking for some cute, fun moderately light-hearted romantic comedy in 70-minutes of songs and laughter to check this show out. I had a great time, enjoyed connecting with the actors only a few feet away. Because I am a 20-something living (sort of) in a city, my views and ability to relate to it might be biased, but I think anyone who’s gone through or is going through the never-ending process of ‘growing up’ would enjoy this show.

Side note: Also, most of the songs from the original New York off-off-Broadway sing-through of this show are on youtube, if you are interested. It’s not the same cast that I saw, but the music is fun, catchy and may occasionally make you melt a little on the inside.