Something feels off from the beginning of “I & You,” the scattershot new musical currently at Olney Theatre Center.
High school student Anthony (J. Antonio Rodriguez) barges into the bedroom of his chronically ill classmate, Caroline (Alex De Bard). The Walt Whitman group project he’s there to complete? It’s due tomorrow — and this is the first she’s hearing of it. The jazz-loving, basketball-playing manic pixie dream boy she barely knows also seems too good to be true.
Featuring a book by Lauren M. Gunderson and a score by Ari Afsar, this intimate tale of transcendent connection goes to great lengths to conceal its ultimate premise. But it has the trappings of a “Fault in Our Stars”-esque teen romance: She’s a mad-at-the-world firecracker, and he’s the sensitive jock ready to challenge her well-worn cynicism.
Considering Gunderson adapted this musical from her 2013 play “I and You,” it’s particularly puzzling that the 90-minute sprint comes across as a song cycle supported by the thinnest of books. The pacing is choppy. The characters are broadly sketched. Their chemistry never quite sizzles. Props to Gunderson for not being precious about cutting down her own material to accommodate a packed songbook. But she probably should’ve preserved more of her original play and given “I & You” time to breathe on its breakneck journey from one poppy tune to the next.
That said, there are pleasures to be found in Afsar’s often-catchy score. De Bard and Rodriguez pull off an appealing give-and-take on the toe-tapper “Help Me.” The playful “Spotted Hawk” is another highlight, and “Every Atom” gives the show a satisfying anthem. Director Sarah Rasmussen, who also oversaw last year’s world premiere at McCarter Theatre Center in New Jersey, keeps the staging fresh in a two-hander that makes the most of Beowulf Boritt’s cluttered bedroom set.
Then there’s the much-ballyhooed ending. Although Gunderson’s big twist induces its fair share of gasps, the subsequent rush to the bows robs the moment of its emotional oomph. Why not take a beat to unpack the baggage? It’s yet another reason “I & You” feels like a slapdash project. Sure, this show avoids a failing grade. But it’s a ways away from passing with flying colors.
I & You: The Musical Through May 24 at Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Rd., Olney. About 1 hour 30 minutes. olneytheatre.org.
Here’s a roundup of three more shows on D.C.-area stages:
‘Aguardiente’
The daunting task of crafting a musical from scratch proves equally tricky for “Aguardiente,” a world premiere at GALA Hispanic Theatre. Perhaps that’s unsurprising for a deeply personal show — about the clash of artistic integrity and crass commercialism — that essentially strives to create not one but two new musicals.
Luis Salgado is responsible for the book, choreography and direction of “Aguardiente,” which features music by Daniel Alejandro Gutiérrez and lyrics co-written by the pair. Staged in Spanish and English with surtitles, this metatextual spectacle centers on a Puerto Rican writer (Samuel Garnica) and a Colombian composer (Sebastián Treviño) tasked with creating a new musical. (A bottle of aguardiente, a popular Colombian spirit, looms as their prize for finishing the show.) As their concept crystallizes into the story of two small-town Colombians (Vin Ramos and Ana Luisa Martínez) dreaming of a world beyond their borders, that tale also comes to life onstage.
There’s an intoxicating appeal to Salgado’s spirited choreography and Gutiérrez’s Afro-Caribbean rhythms. The obstacles their onstage avatars must confront — including a cartoonish producer (Eric González) who thinks the material is too “woke” — clearly come from painful experience. But the show overflows with ambition. It’s unwieldy and overlong, with an overreliance on scene-setting projections.
When the second act sidelines the central artists and misguidedly luxuriates in the show-within-a-show, it becomes clear that there’s fat to be trimmed — as is typically the case with any world-premiere staging. Let’s just hope Salgado and Gutiérrez get another chance to distill “Aguardiente.”
Aguardiente: Where Magic Transcends Borders Through May 24 at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St. NW. About 2 hours 30 minutes. galatheatre.org.
‘Purlie Victorious’
It speaks to the enduring lyricism of Ossie Davis’s words that “Purlie Victorious” — not the 1970 Broadway musical but the 1961 farce that inspired it — remains melodic in the absence of songs. That’s what happens when you put the titular preacher’s sermons in the mouth of Warner Miller, who plays the role in Studio Theatre’s transporting production. His Purlie stirs himself into such a frenzy about righting racist wrongs that his spiels keep the whole play spinning along.
Psalmayene 24 had the imposing assignment of directing “Purlie Victorious” in the wake of 2023’s scintillating Broadway revival, a taping of which is available on PBS. Such comparisons can be unfair. Case in point: As Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins, a backwoods innocent recruited into Purlie’s schemes, Danaya Esperanza doesn’t mine the same comic gold Kara Young found on Broadway. But then again, that unimitable audacity was exactly what netted Young a Tony.
Consider Esperanza’s performance in a vacuum, however, and she acquits herself just fine. Kelli Blackwell and Jason Bowen also win plenty of laughs as Purlie’s no-nonsense sister-in-law and eager-to-please brother. Stephen Patrick Martin is deliciously diabolical as Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipee, the White plantation owner holding an inheritance hostage from the Black family that deserves it. And John Sygar endears as Cap’n’s decidedly more progressive son.
Credit also is due to Robb Hunter, the fight choreographer who oversees a fracas that ends with a slow-motion blow to the kisser. It’s a fitting moment for a 65-year-old skewering that still packs a punch.
Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch Through June 21 at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW. About 1 hour 40 minutes. studiotheatre.org.
‘The Great Gatsby’
Is “The Great Gatsby” a muscular indictment of the American Dream or a diverting escape to jazz-age excess? If you answered the latter on your high school English paper, you probably weren’t happy with your grade. But here’s a silver lining: You’ll vibe with the ongoing Broadway musical’s touring production, now at the National Theatre.
Librettist Kait Kerrigan does sufficiently repackage F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 classic. Director Marc Bruni flashes some eye-popping imagery and savvy sleight of hand, and Jason Howland’s score occasionally soars high enough to overcome Nathan Tysen’s brutally literal lyrics. (Bless Jake David Smith and Senzel Ahmady, as the mysterious millionaire Gatsby and his superficial love Daisy, for gamely belting the words “Wrong or right/My green light.”) Still, this song-and-dance spectacular remains a misbegotten exercise.
Try as Joshua Grosso might to sell the inevitable pivot to tragedy, in a dexterous performance as the narrating Nick, the indulgent spectacle and jarring comedy were always going to undercut the violent conclusion. Yes, this show loyally recites Fitzgerald’s text. But it misreads his masterpiece all the same.
The Great Gatsby Through May 24 at the National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. About 2 hours 30 minutes. broadwayatthenational.
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