Joshua Henry in The Wrong Man at the MCC Theater, New York Picture Matthew Murphy
The Wrong Man continues at The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space, New York until 17 November 2019.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
“Am I a human being/Or am I here performing?” So sings Duran, the lead character, at the start of the new Off-Broadway musical The Wrong Man.
It’s a question that sort of reverberates throughout the entire proceeding as the show, despite an abundance of theatrical artistry, fails to catch narrative fire with its tale of an everyday guy framed for murders he didn’t comm
(In case you’re wondering, the show has nothing to do with the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock movie with the same title, in which Henry Fonda through mistaken identity is wrongfully accused of a series of robberies.)
The sung-through musical is the work of Ross Golan, who wrote the book, music and lyrics. He’s an esteemed songwriter who has turned out hits for such performers as Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez, and the show seems to be a passion project for him.
His programme bio tells how he began writing it in 2005 and in 2009 started to perform early versions in people’s homes. He then played it in venues “from Sydney to (New York)” with a concept album released just this past July.
Meanwhile, for the past two years, he has been developing the piece with director Thomas Kail (yes, that Thomas Kail, the director of that supreme hit Hamilton) and music supervisor and orchestrator Alex Lacamoire (whose credits not only include Hamilton but Dear Evan Hansen as well).
They are impressive teammates, but the result never makes clear what inspired Golan to invest his time and talents on this “wrong man” story. Was he attempting to musicalise a film noir ambience? If so, the show fails to build any type of suspense or compelling detail to hold us in its grip.
Duran, who has told us that he works in unspecified “middle management” in Reno, Nevada, relates in one song after another how hapless his life has been, how he hooks up with a blonde temptress, Mariana, in a bar, and then is pursued by her malevolent estranged husband. The husband catches up with Duran on a street, where he fatally shoots a random passerby, throwing the gun at Duran.
The distraught Duran then runs to Mariana’s apartment to find that she’s been murdered by her husband. And Duran is quickly charged with both crimes.
Is the show interested in pushing against wrongful convictions? There’s very little “law and order” stuff to grab us. Or are we to see Duran as the pawn of fickle or cruel fate? Maybe, but if so, the idea gets buried in the endless barrage, as listenable as it all is, of Golan’s music and the busy and intense dance staging, as visually interesting as it all is, by choreographer Travis Wall, which accompanies just about every song.
Not even the tremendous performance of Joshua Henry as Duran engaged anything in me but admiration. Golan has given him a series of rap-infused yet surprisingly melodic arias, describing his life and predicament, and Henry (who was a tremendous Billy Bigelow in the recent Broadway revival of Carousel) delivers them with emotionally-drenched power. Eventually, though, we know that poor Duran is going to eat his heart out and possibly other vital organs as well with every climactic note.
Surprisingly, the most scintillating numbers are given to the evil husband, described simply as Man in Black and played with zesty aplomb by Ryan Vasquez. In back-to-back Latin tempo numbers, he sings about cavorting in Tijuana, Mexico, and then in prison, where’s he sent for various crimes but not the murders for which Duran is taking the rap.
The show’s other principal role, Mariana, is handled with sexy assurance by Ciara Renée. Completing the cast is the six-person ensemble who impress with Wall’s choreography, and even though they are often in kept in semi-darkness, they can’t help but draw attention from the earnest singing that’s going on at the same time.
Another distancing factor is the handsomely abstract set design (by Rachel Hauck, with lighting by Betsy Adams), marked by ribbons of LED lights stretching out beyond the playing area, and changing colours along with the walls of the theatre as well. It’s gorgeous and artistic but seems unrelated to the dramaturgy at hand.
It falls in line with Kail’s staging, which is fluid and eye-filling without giving much heft to actual drama. Even when Duran and Mariana grab at each other and make out to the song entitled ‘Take Off Your Clothes’ it seems more like a performance piece than a sex scene.
Certainly, one of the show’s big assets is the five-person on-stage band, conducted by Taylor Peckham, infusing Golan’s music with a rhythmic richness.
In short, The Wrong Man gets a lot right, except when it comes to the all-important telling of story.
Ron Cohen
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