Anyone interested in seeing how a marvelously talented cast can shore up material that is far beneath its collective abilities should head over to Playwrights Horizons before June 22nd. There you'll find Saved, a sanitized musical version of the 2004 movie of the same name. On the whole, the show reminded me of Next to Normal, and not just because of the presence of Aaron Tveit in both shows. Like N2N, Saved never quite establishes a consistent tone with which to treat its admirable subject matter.
To understand what's wrong with this flawed but well-meaning show, take a look at the logo. (See color version below) Yeah, it's not going to win any design awards, mostly because in addition to being aesthetically dull, it tells you nothing about the show. A heart with wings and a halo: Is this going to be a carefree romp about the Sacred Heart of Jesus? A show about an afterlife romance involving Dr. Christiaan Barnard? There's really no way to know.
The show starts off as though it's going to be a soft-pedal satire, but quickly veers into the land of bland earnestness. The extended opening sequence does nothing to establish a consistent tone, and I spent the rest of Act 1 trying to determine whether the show had a point of view. It never materialized, which left me feeling that the show was neither fish nor fowl, neither comedy nor drama, neither satire nor homage.
The plot involves a group of kids at a Christian high school who start to deal with some social
issues -- notably, homosexuality and teenage pregnancy -- and are eventually forced to choose between strict dogma and
compassion for their classmates. This creates a terrific opportunity for some biting social commentary, but the creators have
squandered that opportunity.
Saved features an unremarkable score by Michael Friedman. And despite the fact that the show lists three lyricists -- Friedman, John Dempsey (The Pirate Queen, The Witches of Eastwick), and Rinne Groff -- the only time the lyrics become memorable is when they're painfully bad: "Life is screwy, grab onto a life buoy," "Cleaning your messy diapers taught me how to pray," and "Popping the zit of sin" are just some of the groaners from the show. What's more, the score feels repetitious: There are far too many songs in the show that essentially say "Life has thrown me a curve, what do I do now?"
As I mentioned, the show has a better cast than it really deserves, including the delightful Celia Keenan-Bolger as the central character Mary. Julia Murney plays Mary's mother, imbuing the character with dimension and humor, despite the two-dimensional material. Also noteworthy are Curtis Holbrook in the Macaulay Culkin role, and John Dossett, who deserves extra credit for being able to sing lyrics like "I'm yearning, I'm searching, I'm seeking" with a straight face.
As we were filing out, I overheard someone saying, "I wonder whether this show would work in a bigger venue?" I couldn't help it. I turned to him and said, "I don't think it's going to get the chance." Besides, it's not as though it's working in its present venue.
Can this musical be saved? Not from where I sit.
