Musical theater fans will want to make their way to the Atlantic Theater Company’s tiny Stage 2, where a bevy of formidable talents both on and offstage are laboring to make a problematic show work. There’s a lot to appreciate in Cornelia Street, especially some terrific performances from a cast including Norbert Leo Butz, making a long overdue return to a leading role in a musical, and Mary Beth Peil, proving that her charm and talents have only gotten better with age. But this work written by Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) and featuring a score by singer/songwriter Mark Eitzel (best known for having led the band American Music Club) fails to live up to its considerable ambitions, provoking as much disappointment as admiration.
Set in a restaurant in the West Village (any resemblance to the late, lamented Cornelia Street Café is surely intentional), the musical staged by Neil Pepe follows the time-honored template established by everything from The Iceman Cometh to Cheers, namely providing an anecdotal character study of the various employees and patrons of an eating/drinking establishment. We’re thus introduced to the chef, Jacob (Butz), whose attire mainly consists of vintage rock music t-shirts emblazoned with the likes of the Ramones and David Bowie; the owner, Marty (Kevyn Morrow), desperately trying to keep the café financially viable and chafing at Jacob’s propensity for embellishing his dishes with expensive ingredients; and a genial waiter, Philip (Esteban Andres Cruz), who genuinely seems to enjoy his work.
The patrons include William (a charismatic George Abud), a cab driver who makes his real living selling drugs; John (Ben Rosenfield), a twentysomething nerdy techie with a seemingly generous income; and Sarah (Peil), a retired opera singer who regularly waltzes into the café with the greeting, “Good evening, gentlemen of my heart.” Another frequent visitor is Jacob’s teenage daughter Patti (Lena Pepe, daughter of director Neil, and a current drama student at Vassar —insert “nepo baby” jokes here), who lives above the café with her father.
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★☆☆☆ review here.]
There isn’t a plot, really, merely a succession of scenes, some dramatic, some comic, with the occasional melodramatic flourish thrown in. One example of the latter is the unexpected arrival of Misty (Gisel Jimenez, Dexter: New Blood), Jacob’s 30-year-old daughter from an early marriage, who bursts into the café angrily informing him that her mother has died and demanding money with a threat of violence.
Cut to the next scene set several weeks later, when Misty is now working at the restaurant and everything has apparently been forgiven. That’s an example of the choppy nature of Stephens’ script, which features weird narrative disconnects that give the feeling of reading a lengthy novel with several chapters missing. Scenes often begin and end in inexplicable fashion, with dangling plot elements that are never satisfactorily resolved. And a subplot involving Jacob contemplating resorting to selling drugs to keep the restaurant afloat, with the friendly William suddenly turning violently menacing, feels like something out of a Martin Scorsese movie.
Interrupting the dense verbiage is a series of songs, or more accurately song fragments. Many of them, however brief, are quite lovely, displaying the composer’s ample gifts for melody. And they’re beautifully orchestrated, with the small onstage band featuring such instruments as harp, tuba and trombone. But they only occasionally actually add depth or emotion to the storyline, and the lyrics are unfortunately simplistic. (Suffice it to say that “Does your mother love to swoon/Does she like a darkened room/Does she tell you that the moon/Deserves her heart” won’t cause Lin-Manuel Miranda to lose any sleep.) And while choreographer Hope Boykin is an acclaimed, two-time Bessie Award winner, the scattershot work she’s provided here makes you concerned the performers are suffering seizures. One dance number ends so abruptly that it makes you think that you must have had one yourself.
Still, the show proves genuinely moving at times, largely thanks to many of the ensemble’s efforts, especially Butz. The versatile actor never projects a false note here, infusing his role with depths of emotion and humor that make you genuinely care for his character despite his flaws. Peil, too, is a marvel, even if the veteran performer is forced to utter some vulgarly sexualized dialogue that seems mostly intended for shock value.
Scott Pask’s set design for the tiny space is so warm and inviting that you’re tempted to hang around after the show concludes and order one of those dishes, like venison ravioli or a porcini mushroom omelet, of which Jacob is so proud. On the other hand, it might be advisable to wait until the creators of Cornelia Street have had time to further develop their deeply flawed but nevertheless promising musical.
Cornelia Street opened February 14, 2023, at Atlantic Stage 2 and runs through March 5. Tickets and information: atlantictheater.org
