Last night, I went to a very enjoyable reading at CAP21 called "The Time Travelers Convention". The initial premise was that a group of students put flyers in the library books alerting any time travelers from the future that there will be a party for their arrival. The story's theme eventually came to "don't try and go back to the past in order to fix your present". There were some very funny and touching moments, but like I said some of it definitely needs overhauling - such as not starting Act 2 with a depressing daughter/father ballad.
One thing that irked me. The composer, Mike Pettry, is a Jonathan Larson Foundation Award winner and wrote some lovely music. Heidi Heilig wrote the book and lyrics - however, there was one song that repeated the phrase "I should tell you" several times and in a very familiar way. I suspect that perhaps it was their homage to Jonathan, but it was a bit much. One phrase that definitely should be removed is "library kisses (or libraries and kisses)".
The show needs a lot of work, but the potential is definitely there for a fun off-broadway venture that would probably do quite well given the right cast.
SIDE NOTE: While walking back to my car (down the block) I experienced something I hadn't in a VERY long time. Uneasiness. I guess what happened two weeks ago didn't just stay in my dreams but manifested itself in reality. It bothered me that I was bothered.
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Hey, Yenta! :) This is Heidi Heilig -- I was googling my name (yeah. . . yikes . . . :) ) and i came across your blog! :)
Thanks for the review. I really appreciate your comments and I agree with a lot of them - especially, for example, that about the heavy depressing Act 2 opener: it was new this time around. The whole show used to be must jauntier and i think that this track we took (less jaunty, more depressing) was not really the right way to go. Again, I really do appreciate your comments on it; it means a lot to me to hear an honest opinion on that, and i think you're right. :)
One thing - we actually wrote the show substantially before Mike won the Larson! (2005-2006, our last year in grad school at NYU.)
The "i should tell you" came out of the "Can I Tell You" hook -- the song used to be exclusively "Can I Tell You" (hookwise) but we got feedback that in that last verse, if it goes back to the question "can i tell you?" then no one has made a decision in the whole song and it's not moving the plot forward, so we changed it to I Should after the bridge. We only realized later that the line "I should tell you" is repeated quite a bit in Rent!
Anyway. Again, thank you so much for the review and for the points you make, and for coming to the show - in the personal confusion that I experience following a reading of my work, it's really great to hear a clear-headed critique. I really appreciate it, and if you have any more for me, I'd love to hear it! My email address is heidi.heilig@gmail.com.
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