If/Then looks at choice, chance and possibility
DETROIT–In case the language of computing hasn’t convinced you, allow the musical If/Then to state the case. The nature of everything is binary; things either go one way or the other, and the line between possibilities is as thin as that forward slash in the title.
The pleasing show, by Tom Kitt (music) and Brian Yorkey (book and lyrics), the pair responsible for Next to Normal, goes a step further. Meet Elizabeth, recently returned to New York after 12 years in the desert (i.e., Phoenix). Remember the Robert Frost poem about the two roads diverging in the woods? Instead of choosing one, what if you could take them both? And sing about it. And no matter which one you pick, everybody has the hots for you, even the gay guy.
Playing the role of Elizabeth, a city planner in her 30s and newly divorced–a role written for and originated on Broadway by Idina Menzel–is powerhouse vocalist Jackie Burns. She gets a job with the city. Or she doesn’t, and accepts a university teaching job. She takes up with old friend and sometime lover, Lucas (Anthony Rapp), a “housing activist” who is bisexual. Or she doesn’t, and makes a life with a new guy, Josh (Matthew Hydzik), an Army surgeon back from his second tour of duty in an unspecified war zone.
The premise is piquant and intellectually challenging, but before the audience’s collective brain hurts, one narrative predominates—never entirely, though.
The singers are first-rate. Burns is strong and expressive, Hydzik is a tenor of the heroic mold, and there’s a pleasing plaintiveness to Rapp’s voice (some may recall him as the title character in the 1999 revival of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown that played the Fisher pre-Broadway, as well as Rent on Broadway). Splendid, too, is Tamyra Gray as the one constant in Elizabeth’s life–her best friend, Kate.
They and their castmates do much to gloss over the fact that while the score conveys emotion and situation, no song is particularly memorable. The ones that come closest are the wistful “You Learn To Live Without” and the one with the unforgettable title: “What the Fuck?”
Staged by its original Broadway director, Michael Greif, If/Then abounds with intriguing metaphors, with the bisexual Lucas as a living, breathing one. Significant scenes take place in Madison Square Park, in the shadow of the Flatiron Building; Mark Wendland’s set design sometimes provides a double image of the structure as a backdrop. That’s hardly necessary. The triangular edifice is metaphor enough; it even has two addresses, 175 5th Avenue and 949 Broadway.
The design also makes much of city maps—street maps where every intersection provides choices of which way to go, and subway maps with their frequent transfer points.
Entertainment choices abound, too, these days and If/Then is one well worth considering.
Running time is 2 hours and 40 minutes with intermission.