The less said the better regarding Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, a tedious new musical based upon a popular film comedy of 1969 regarding the changing moral/sexual values of the era.
Involving two middle-class and middle-aged suburban Los Angeles couples, Bob and Carol and their friends Ted and Alice, the film concocted by Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker traces their gradual swing towards sexual openness.
A possibility arises that they may swap spouses. Or might they even try a foursome?
[Read David Finkle’s ★ review here.]
Although this scenario holds potential as the basis for a musical, it has not been imaginatively developed by its makers. Opening in its world premiere on Tuesday at the Pershing Square Signature Center in a highly competent production by The New Group, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice is mostly a bore.
Scarcely a musical so much (or less) as a sad little play dotted with a dozen songs, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice has been under-composed by Duncan Sheik, who co-wrote the score’s prosaic lyrics with Amanda Green. Collaborating with Jonathan Marc Sherman, who claims responsibility for the excessively talkative, repetitive script, they have not musicalized the original material in any interesting or amusing ways.
They could have brightly satirized the silliness of the Swinging ‘60s. They could have transformed the characters’ separate liaisons with other people into comical interludes. They could have … well, it’s not for me to suggest possibilities that go unrealized here by Sheik & Green & Sherman.
To his credit, Sheik has composed a couple of groovy tunes such as “The Wind in Your Hair” and “This is Happening,” which pay homage to late ‘60s pop music. They are aptly orchestrated with the period sounds of a flute, a sitar, and bongos. Many numbers, however, are insufficiently developed and merely sit on top of the storyline rather than drive or dramatize it. Certain songs, noticeably short in form, end just when they seem to be getting started.
Despite an occasional dance break provided by choreographer Kelly Devine—the title figures bop into a nifty “Madison” at one bright point—the mostly laugh-free show generally registers as aimless and listless.
Since the story occurs half a century ago, it is surprising that its framers fail to put the characters’ anxieties into some sort of 1969 social context so that present-day viewers could appreciate and thus sympathize and perhaps laugh along with their jitters.
Perhaps the most shocking aspect of this musical is not its total lack of sex appeal but how the damned dull thing ever made it out of the workshop stage at all.
Dressed by Jeff Mahshie in ultra-stylish period duds, Joél Pérez, Jennifer Damiano, Michael Zegen, and Ana Nogueira respectively and agreeably portray Bob, Carol, Ted, and Alice. Backed by four onstage musicians, the actors are joined by singer Suzanne Vega, who wryly functions as the show’s interlocutor, and Jamie Mohamdein, who pops up in minor bit parts. Everyone does as best they can with what little they are given to do by the authors.
Scott Elliott, The New Group’s artistic director, provides the 105-minute production with an exceptionally fluent staging on designer Derek McLane witty setting, where a shape-shifting velour couch turns into different beds. It is obvious that the company has invested a pretty dollar into realizing the production nicely. Shame that it’s been blown on such a dud.
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice opened February 4, 2020, at Signature Center and runs through March 22. Tickets and information: thenewgroup.org
