By Carol Davis
LA JOLLA, California —A bona fide world premiere of the William Finn/ James Lapine musical Little Miss Sunshine is now being staged at the La Jolla Playhouse on the Mandell Weiss Stage. That’s of course if you don’t count the movie (Michael Arndt) of the same name, which this particular musical follows chapter and verse. This is not a bad thing. In fact, yours truly thinks it has rather brilliant staging, fine acting, and universal appeal
The Tony Award winning team of Lapine (book/ director) and Finn (music and lyrics) also created Falsettos and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. So no slouches here. Back in the days before color TV (just kidding) Lapine directed the lovely Merrily We Roll Along and the gawdawful Luck, Pluck and Virtue at the Playhouse. Again no stranger to La Jolla.
Little Miss Sunshine is a story of a different stripe. It’s a quirky, laugh out loud at the absurdities comedy, yet it has its very serious sides to it. It’s dark and blanketed in some thought-provoking issues like suicide, being different and kid’s Beauty Pageants, to name a few. These issues all seem to rain upon the Hoover family unit with Mom, Linda (Carmen Ruby Floyd), Dad, Richard (Hunter Foster), son, Dwayne (Taylor Trensch), daughter, Oliver (Georgi James), Grandpa (Dick Latedssa) and Uncle Frank (sweet voiced Malcolm Gets) all getting into the act.
It seems that our bubbly, vivacious and oh, so innocent Olive won a spot (by default) to compete in the “Little Miss Sunshine” contest in Redondo Beach, California. She is absolutely the antithesis of the world’s vision of what that looks like in the youthful world of beauty contestants but don’t let that sideline you. Olive has more enthusiasm, courage and verve than her entire family put together and if that’s all it took, well…
Here’s the scoop. Olive and family live in Albuquerque, NM and Olive must be present in Redondo Beach, CA to compete in the finals. The finals are being held in a matter of days. For reasons that may or may not be clear, they all pile into Grandpa’s old broken-down yellow and white VW bus and start on their six hundred plus mile journey through the desert to the land of beaches, sunshine and glamour.
But first a little background music in case you missed the movie: Dad Richard is a wanna be “10 Steps For Success” promoter (a program he wrote and thinks he’s going to make a small fortune selling). He goes around giving his “10 Step Refuse to Lose” seminars but can’t seem to make them work at home. Mom Linda keeps the family afloat as a bank teller, a job she hates. Son Dwayne is an unhappy, nerdy, doesn’t fit the teenager mold, quotes Nietzsche and has not spoken a word to his family in 86 days.
Grandpa (“don’t go on drugs ‘till you go on Social Security”) is living with his son and daughter-in-law since he’s been thrown out of every retirement home he’s lived, well, because he’s a dirty old man. Linda’s brother Larry, a brilliant academic (Proust is deal) is on a 24-hour suicide watch since he slit his wrists over the loss of his student lover has just come to live with the family.
Now you have them all in one beat up old VW bus with very few funds and with fewer prospects for a bright future. Collectively, their goal is make it to Redondo Beach in time for registration and not harm each other along the way.
With about two hours and a half hours of getting in and out of this broken down VW bus (David Korins designed not one but three of these but more on that later) and hearing about everyone’s foibles as sung by various members of the cast on this six hundred plus drive across the desert, I’ll pass on the next proposed road trip if it involves more than one other person, thank you.
I’d like to say that I am a fan of the composer/lyricist combo but that would mislead you into thinking that I liked the musical score that goes along with this road trip story. I would say it’s a fifty/fifty toss up as to how much the music really enhanced the story and that’s as much of it as I enjoyed. Some tempering, cutting, and rethinking of much of the score is in order.
That said, there are some tunes that really do fit the characters and are well placed: “Same Old Same Old” heads us off in the right direction as sung by Sheryl and family, “Grandpa’s Advise” is a hoot sung by Grandpa and family, “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” is a lovely ode to Olive by Grandpa, “Something Better Better Happen” is sung in frustration by Sheryl, “I Can’t Breathe” is a perfect piece for Dwayne to break his silence and he does it quite well, “Suffering” by both Frank and Dwayne says it all about these two, “What I left Behind” is a sentimental melody sung by Richard as he remembers his father and finally “No More Sugar Coating” (step 5 of Richard’s 10 Step Program) sets a new direction for the family.
Overall the show is up beat and fun to be a part of even though the topics can be heavy. While the story is one of those sleepers (the title lulls you into thinking it’s all about a beauty contest), it is rather engaging especially as being staged at the Playhouse. Lapine’s direction along with Christopher Gattelli’s musical staging and with a solid cast and support from the company does rate high on the list of shows to see. A round of applause is due Vadim Feichtner, musical director/conductor and Michael Starobin for his orchestrations.
Especially outstanding is scenic director David Korin’s clever use of lines, props (little road signs that move, sail boats against the Pacific Ocean backdrop and the family home made of slats that fall into place bearing a familiar look) and his three busses: his remote baby VW bus that looks like it’s in better condition than the one carrying the family, the one stationed outside the house and the real McCoy with removable doors and top that’s used, on occasion, to head us in the right direction as the family treks across the desert. Ken Billington’s lighting design adds to that overall look and Dan Moss Schreier’ sound design drives us along.
The cast is more than satisfying from Hunter Foster ‘s Richard and his upbeat tempo to Dick Latessa’s Grandpa who is nothing but a riot (Alan Arkin won an Oscar for that very same role in the movie version) to the little Miss Sunshine contestants that Georgi is competing with, Sophia DeLange, Madi Rae DiPietro, Kishka Grantz and Felicity Bryant. (Costume designer Jennifer Caprio and her little leprechauns do fine work for these young beauty queens) Putting Georgi up against these seasoned miniature beauties makes you think that we’re talking about “The Little Engine That Could” rather than “Little Miss Sunshine”.
And who doesn’t want to see the underdog succeed? Not I.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: through March 27th
Organization: La Jolla Playhouse
Phone: 858-550-1010
Production Type: Musical
Where: 2910 La Jolla Village Drive La Jolla, CA 92037
Ticket Prices: $44.00-$100.00
Web: lajollaplayhouse.org
Venue: Mandell Weiss Theatre
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Davis is a San Diego-based theatre critic. She may be contacted at carol.davis@sdjewishworld.com