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In 1984, St. Germain and Courts created a one-act Off Broadway musical from “The Gift of the Magi,” but they combined it (I assume, for length) with another piece by O. Henry, “The Cop and The Anthem,” about Soapy Smith, a homeless man who crawls out from under a pile of newspaper to serve as the vaudevillian comic relief. Soapy (his last name added by the musical) wants to be arrested so as to have a warm place to sleep for the night. While there are plenty of holiday lessons to be gained from that simple setup, the character (a charismatic Kevin McKillip doing his best with unfortunate material) is a clown removed of all humanity. His trickster ways recall Shavian tramps in politically charged plays of the same era like “Major Barbara.” However, in those dramas, Bernard Shaw had a decisive worldview and a strong agenda. O. Henry’s famed literary voice is made askew by the padded combination of the two short stories, and the agenda, which should be Christmastime uplift, is unbearably cheesy, eye-rolling schmaltz.
As one would expect of Porchlight’s production, directed by Mark Lococo, the cast sings magnificently. Nate Lewellyn, in the thankless role of newsboy narrator Willy Porter, has a delectably soaring voice that shakes the room late in the play. But the actors’ sound is too often made faint by Victoria DeIorio’s design, which doesn’t afford them enough amplification for a thrust arrangement. Chelsea Morgan and Jason Richards are genuine and honestly in-love as Della and Jim Dillingham, the desperate couple, and the only story line worth watching. Their trials and tribulations are heightened by two flatlining characters, The City-Him (Gerald Richardson) and The City-Her (Heather Townsend), who become anything and everything greedy and evil in this mean metropolis. If you’ve any doubt as to their intent, they will sing you a song simply titled “Greed” to set you straight.
Courts’ score is pleasant like a shaken-up snow globe. Drops of musical precipitate scatter around the generic newspaper-print set (William Boles) that all but erases O. Henry’s nostalgic New York locale. The music, dialogue and cast-reduction all take away from the Big Apple setting, perhaps enabling a kind of relatable Everyplace, USA. But with the antiquated treatment of a homeless character (Soapy’s ending is changed from the short story to be funnier) and a grossly disproportionate balance of warm-and-fuzzy with hard hitting reality, Everyplace is not the town for me. (Johnny Oleksinski)
At Stage 773, 1225 West Belmont, (773)327-5252. Through December 23.
Read more at Newcitystage.com
