I think you need to go see Everything is Okay (and other helpful lies) playing at Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT) through November 10, and I suggest you get your tickets now as word will get out soon that this dark, irreverent, and beautifully performed musical comedy is a SMASH. The play was written and composed by Cleveland natives Melissa Crum and Caitlin Lewins, developed by CPT, and directed skillfully by nationally renowned actor and director Matthew Wright. Crum and Lewins also star in the play, and these two artists demonstrate conclusively that they are gifted songwriters, lyricists, and performers. You will assuredly be hearing a lot more from them.
Producer and CPT Executive Artistic Director Raymond Bobgan has said that he thinks the play could have a life beyond CPT and that if you see it now, you’ll be able to say, “Well, I saw it when…” He’s absolutely correct in my opinion, and the same thought occurred to me independently as I saw this play evolve over the last few years at CPT. Such a great joy it is to watch the creative process for profound new dramatic work that is fresh, funny, and relevant.
What’s so great about this play? Everything, as it happens. First and foremost, the music just rocks. An amazing 23 stylistically diverse tunes are driven masterfully by a live four-piece band that is powerful but never overpowers the truly gifted vocalists delivering the witty lyrics and emotional roller coaster of moods of the songs. Repeating melodic themes and reprising sections of songs hits the right note from start to finish. Getting the soundboard mix right for a play like this is tough, and the technical crew nails it, as the music was clear, well-balanced and the vocal arrangements and harmonies truly goosebump worthy. I’ve seen many a musical that doesn’t have the catchy tunes, memorable riffs, smart lyrics, and foot-tapping rhythms of this play. You’ll be humming some bars the next day, so let’s hope this music gets recorded and becomes available very soon.
The ensemble cast works exceedingly well together, is energetic, and believably interact as close friends. Each member is strong and has their opportunity to tell their individual story dramatically and in song, and each excels when they get the chance. Madelyn Hayes, Joshua McElroy, and Matt O’Shea are great choices for their interesting characters, and Jerry Tucker expertly provides the appropriate comic relief in multiple smaller roles. The technical aspects of the play are astute and fit its subject matter well: minimalist but detailed set, spot-on age appropriate and occasionally hilarious costuming, subdued but at times surprisingly fun lighting and special effects, and a run time that is pretty much perfect at a little over two hours with a short break. Blocking and choreography are fun and realistic throughout, even when the script has the characters drinking throughout the first act.
The story line is ostensibly rooted in millennial angst, but the truth is it’s not. It’s about the life challenges we all face: career, love, relationships with family and friends, death, emotions, and how we may choose to grapple with those challenges in not entirely healthful ways. The script and lyrics are smart, laugh-out-loud funny, and definitely for adults only. That said, you probably know many people and in particular some thirty-somethings that talk just like this and are not at all afraid to bare their souls of some of the more unseemly details of living life the way we all know it gets lived. The story line then is real, and unfailingly honest.
So, the dramatic themes of the play are what we all know to be true and reach us in a place at which we go to theatre to be reached. It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s touching, and while you may quibble with the ways in which the characters choose to manage their lives, the play is at the end uniquely uplifting as the characters are willing to boldly assert that they’re not really that okay, given the tough hand that life occasionally deals, and that’s okay. They’re going to survive, and you come away with the sense they are headed down a path to figure out what needs to be figured out.
There’s a reason the cast, musicians, director, and crew got a spontaneous and raucous standing ovation when I saw this play. Everything is Okay is that good.
