RALEIGH -- Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy extends into autumn with "Drift," a musical exploration of divorce and its aftermath. Its polished presentation of accomplished singers, a dynamic band, sophisticated visuals and confident staging makes a strong case for this category-defying piece.
New York-based songwriter Jeremy Schonfeld worked through a marital breakup by writing about his feelings, resulting in a concept album of 11 songs. For a later concert staging, he composed half a dozen more, leading to this expanded theatrical staging as a 75-minute one-act performance.
Broadway performer Lauren Kennedy, Hot Summer Nights co-producer along with husband and fellow actor Alan Campbell, directs the show's premiere. It has had a two-week run at Wilson's Barton College (in the new theater named for the couple) and opens tonight in downtown Raleigh's Kennedy Theatre.
The show's focus is on David (Christian Campbell) and his former wife, Laura (Andrea Schulz Twiss). David goes to their old apartment to collect his belongings and is flooded with memories.
We meet his fellow group therapy buddies: outgoing Peter (Melvin Tunstall III), cynical Thomas (Dave Barrus), shy Justin (Gregory Dale) and bitter Mike (Sean Jenness). They commiserate in a humorous session and later carouse in a bar, flirting with classy Jane (Yolanda Rabun) and raunchy Sarah (Michelle Kinney). In a series of vignettes, all the characters reflect on guilt and recriminations as they try to move on.
Seen in a Wilson performance, the production had much to offer. Schonfeld's richly orchestrated score has catchy melodies and engaging variety. His lyrics communicate emotions from anger to hope in arresting turns of phrase.
As the conductor and a player in the five-piece onstage band, he gives the music vibrant thrust and precision. The actors have distinctive voices, viscerally deployed in their solos, lushly blended in the many ensembles.
Kennedy strategically arranges the cast on the stage, smoothly dovetailing each scene into the next. She's aided by impressive photos and films of cityscapes from projection artist Vincent Marini, playing out over the movable units of Chris Bernier's sets.
The staging suggests a storyline with an arc, but the songs are discrete settings of mood that don't lend themselves to a linked story. A certain frustration comes in wanting to know more about the background of the breakup. Short connecting dialog could have supplied some satisfying detail without harm to the concept.
Schonfeld starts most numbers as solos, then brings in additional voices, making for a corresponding sameness in the staging. The balance between band and singers needs adjusting to allow all of Schonfeld's lyrics to be heard. And the odd bits of choreography by Matthew-Jason Willis seem unnecessary.
Nevertheless, this is a first-class production with first-rate talent, a perfect cap for the company's best season yet.
