The Big Bank
Book & Lyrics by Daniel Seligmann
Music & Lyrics by Jacob Seligmann
Directed by Theresa Broach
Emerson Theater Collaborative at the First United Methodist Church in Mystic, CT through July 31
www.emersontheatercollaborative.org
Investing in a new musical is a gamble. One puts money down on a musical generally realizing it is highly unlikely that you will see a return on your investment. This is a surprising risk in today's economy, even in wealthy Mystic, CT, which is downwind of two of the world's largest casinos. With the musical The Big Bank, the risk-taking Emerson Theater Collaborative has bankrolled a big "new" musical comedy. The ironic quotes are intentional as The Big Bank was written in 1995 and is finally being premiered in 2011. Little could its creators, brothers Jacob and Daniel Seligmann, know how timely a musical about money-hungry mortgage lenders and dream-crushing foreclosures would be when the show finally hit the boards (or the linoleum of the First United Methodist Church's Fellowship Hall, as it were).
So, does Emerson Theater Collaborative's investment in The Big Bank yield record dividends or should they prepare to lose their shirts? The best way to proceed is to tally up the production's assets and liabilities.
ASSET: A big, eager-to-please cast. Finding a theater company willing to put 16 performers on stage (or in a church basement) is a risk that pays off for the most part. The romantic leads, Paul James Lang as the conflicted banker Stuart Stevens and Diane Foster as Iris Jablonski, are sweet and winsome in their roles. Both sing beautifully and render heartfelt performances. Another standout is young Morgan Heller in the role of Parsley Underwood (a role alternated with Mackenzie Ackley). This fourth-grader handles her very complicated lines well and gets the biggest laughs of the night playing a deceitful little old lady in a television commercial promoting the titular bank.
LIABILITY: The Big Bank is essentially a big farce about the collision of high finance and how it can destroy the lives of the proletariat, to quote a term used in the household of the publisher of "Marxism and Conservation" Magazine, Clarence Underwood. Underwood, portrayed by Tim Reilly, is a paranoid, PETA-loving, communist, George Bush-hating lefty who lives in his office/home with his daughter, the aforementioned Parsley. When the bank attempts to foreclose on his property, he plans to blow up the bank (or as he puts it, "The Big Bank is going to seem like the Big Bang."). On the other end of the socio-political spectrum is the tightfisted, heartless CEO of The Big Bank, simply known as The Boss. Portrayed by Bob Olson, The Boss practically salivates at the prospect of dispossessing his clients. Broadly and hammily played for laughs, these two parts are meant to be comic relief. Unfortunately, with current events being what they are, it makes for a somewhat uncomfortable experience to see much humor in potential homelessness or acts of terrorism. Granted, the authors could not have known how prescient their piece would be in 2011 when written sixteen years ago, but it still tempers the humor.
ASSET: There are many wonderful songs in the score, including "In My Room," "Calm Company of Rain," "Cupid Has Impeccable Aim," and "Montague Street." Many modern musicals aim for Sondheim and end up in some tuneless no-man's-land. The Seligmanns show they have a way with melody and clever lyrics, especially on the midtempo numbers and ballads. A particular favorite was the penultimate Act I song "Are We In Love?," a duet for Foster and Lang.
LIABILITY: There are many other songs in the score. Jacob Seligmann's uptempo compositions show a difficulty in transitioning between time signatures. This makes numbers like "We Repossess," "The Bridge Song" and "Life is a Loan" herky-jerky as they vacillate from verse to chorus and back again. It's akin to being in a standard car with someone who is not exactly sure how to shift gears. It is not that these songs are poorly written, but further work on the score may be required to make the songs seem more whole. Some of The Seligmann's lyrics can be a little hokey (like the ballad "Forgotten Language"), while others can be wonderfully clever ("Everybody Loves a Surprise"). The number "Look at All the Creatures in the Zoo" was a bit too clever. On a visit to the zoo, the bankers compare their lives to the lives of the caged animals. While filled with insight and humor, it was not presented with irony and the bankers have heretofore not shown any dissatisfaction with their lot (Stuart excepted, who oddly joins the bankers for a song and dance in "Life is a Loan" after he has quit the Big Bank).
