Theater for the New City’s latest show, “It’s the Economy Stupid! or The Turning Point” — their 32nd annual Summer Street Theater production — is a musical writ-large as a children’s allegory that follows the earnest adventures of the Angel Gabriel.
The heavenly production — written and directed by Crystal Field — is traveling throughout the five boroughs through Sept. 14, including an Aug. 23 performance in Prospect Park’s concert grove.
I caught a Sunday matinee and wasn’t disappointed. “It’s the Economy” is a kind of social comedy, with an angel’s-eye view of planet earth. It tackles everything from carbon footprints to the behavior of public figures in high political offices. The plethora of topics is gloriously interwoven into the one-hour musical.
“It’s the Economy” has a terrific lead character in Gabriel, played with fire and coolness by Michael David Gordon. The story revolves around his mission: he leaves heaven to duke it out with the Americans about their mismanagement of the economy and the natural world. What makes the gooeyness of the story forgivable is that it uncovers the most serious issues we confront today on a global level. The narrative is non-linear, zigzagging like a thunderbolt.
The action opens with God — played by the capable Mark Marcante — making a flashy entrance over the stage. His giant hands reach up into eternal space, and his opening statement (“I’ve taken a time-out!”) gets big laughs from the audience. His declaration also serves as a cosmic catalyst for the large ensemble of angels to initiate their social action on earth, which is dangerously overdue.
Not surprisingly, the angels immediately elect the misfit Gabriel for the solo mission. The rest of the story unfolds in broad sweeping scenes, with Gabriel visiting battlefields in Iraq, streetscapes in New York City and the political hotspots in Washington, DC.
Although the show is billed as a musical, I wasn’t genuinely taken by David Tice’s score in all its variegated modes, from bossa nova to Gilbert and Sullivan. The reason for this is not that the six-piece band wasn’t competant. They were. But more than any other artists, musicians are extremely dependent on the mood created in the production at large. The Gilbert and Sullivan numbers, with their Victorian solidity, just didn’t gel with the issues investigated in “It’s the Economy, Stupid!”
Unfortunately, there were no programs for the show, to help the audience follow the transitions between numbers. Consequently, even when they hit the mark, the songs tended to blur together or be eclipsed by the action and stagecraft. The only striking exception was the chorus for the finale, “Change Is Gonna Come!,” a rousing — no, inspiring — sing-along involving the entire audience.
This musical is more a feast for the eyes than the ears. The eye-catching puppetry is superb, and the ingenious trap doors, opening in all directions, allow the actors to execute bold entrances, or vanish in a nanosecond.
One such piece of eye-candy is the scene in which Gabriel’s attempt to land in New York City goes awry, and he bizarrely surfaces in a trench in Iraq. In this twist of devilish fate, we see him trying to physically survive the whizzing bullets overhead and come to grips with the political conundrum of Iraq. At once, Gabriel gains political savvy and hones survival instincts in this powerful scene. He slowly becomes cognizant of the meaning of American involvement overseas — and the harsh reality of mortality.
While this episode is riveting, most of the scenes in the musical have a subtler power, taking place on the more familiar streets of New York City. No doubt the musical’s biggest strength is that it presents the palpable dangers lurking in our native environment.
Obviously, Gabriel battles the villainous Electric Man (Primy Rivera), whose dark forces have exponentially increased in the metropolis. But the piece makes even stronger gains when it highlights generic community members, including the Teacher (Oliver Thrun), Firemen (Richard Mays, Christine Vega), and The Spirit of Change (Crystal Field), who join with Gabriel to chart a course out of the mayhem.
Of course, these scenes are melodramatic and over-the-top. But the magic of the musical is that these funny, overdrawn characters actually convey universal truths.
Theater for the New City presents “It’s the Economy Stupid! or The Turning Point” at 2 pm on Aug. 23 at the Prospect Park concert grove (Ninth Street and Prospect Park West in Park Slope). Additional performances in Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island run through Sept. 14. Free. For more information, call (212) 254-1109 or visit the Web site www.theaterforthenewcity.net.
