By Kent Straith

ROCHESTER HILLS, MI–A Little More Alive, a solo creation by actor/writer Nick Blaemire (who wrote the book, music, and lyrics), and the latest offering from Meadowbrook Theatre’s season, is a bit of a challenge.

Without exception, all the performances are spot on, while most of the characters themselves are not particularly likable. The one-act (95 minute) show is tightly directed by MBT boss Travis Walter, who did fine work not only honing the work of these actors, but also integrating some tricky video elements into the narrative. A not huge, but extremely important portion of this story is told through VHS home movies, starring two actors whose characters are spoken of but never appear on stage.

Opening with a three-part mourners’ requiem, the audience is placed immediately at the scene of an untimely funeral, with Maggie (played on video by Katie Johnson) having succumbed to cancer not long after turning fifty. The story’s core is the relationship between two brothers in their 20s (Nate and Jeremy), who have never been close, are not friends now, and are grieving for their mother in very different ways. Nate, the elder brother played by Liam Fennecken, is a twenty nine year old slacker who wears a lot of flannel, smokes a LOT of weed, and it’s debatable whether he has a job at all. His younger brother Jeremy is a driven, Type-A personality who has a high paying finance job, wears a suit and black patent leather shoes all the time, and is only open with his feelings to an unseen girlfriend who may or may not care about him at all. As said above, neither of these two young men is all that likable, but you have to give them a little grace, as their mom just died, and they’re somehow about to get even worse news.

Blaemire’s tale of a grieving family who discovers deceit in their family at precisely the worst time…deceit that’s been eating away at its bonds like the tumors that took Maggie away…is moving and heartbreaking. It’s unlike most other musical theater I’ve ever seen, and I say ‘most’ only because I saw Next To Normal and Dear Evan Hansen, two modern musicals with small casts about families dealing with grief and mental illness. A Little More Alive, whose creation predates that of DEH, is clearly influenced by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s Tony award winning 2008 rumination on bipolar disorder.

The songs in ALMA are not what you’d call bangers. The only one whose name I could remember without consulting the program is at the very front of the show and serves to establish Nate’s character with the exquisitely on-the-nose title of ‘Pot At A Funeral’, and nobody is going to be singing it at any school talent shows. But overall, the music works. The songs are woven into the dialogue rather than standing out from them, and while I won’t spoil the central conflict of the show, I can say that all roads lead to a place of…if not everything being alright, to a place of hope and forgiveness. Nate and Jeremy are fundamentally too different to ever be best friends, but by the end, where the three men of this shattered family make their peace and say goodbye to the woman they loved, there is hope that they can be brothers.

All five cast members do affecting work here, with both co-leads creating memorably real people that you may not want to spend a lot of time with in real life. Ron Williams, as Gene, whose wife has left him (one could say for the final time) is exceptional and disappears into his role completely, while Noah Barnes as Jeremy, the incredibly successful person who never even had a chance, is smarmy and sarcastic and aloof, and will remind every viewer of someone they love crushed by the weight of expectations. 

All told, writing this piece has convinced me that while it’s not at all a particularly happy viewing experience, I DID like this show. I wouldn’t take a date (and DEFINITELY not a child) to this show, but any theater buff would find a reason to appreciate its subtle charms and goof storytelling.

(A Little More Alive is playing at Meadowbrook Theatre on the campus of Oakland University in Rochester now through March 10^th. Tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.com, www.mbtheatre.com, or by calling the Meadowbrook box office at 248-377-3300.)