By Carol Davis
CORONADO, California–When John Patrick Shanley’s wrote Doubt: A Parable for the stage in 2004 I doubt many knew that Moonstruck, the movie was his work as well. Or if they made the connection that he had written Joe Verses the Volcano (also a movie) in 1990, or that he would later go on to write, among a long list of plays, the charming Sailor’s Song in 2004 that was beautifully mounted at the New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad not once, but twice.
Shanley won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony for Best Play in 2005 for Doubt and deservedly so. Moonstruck was nominated for six Oscars at the 60th Academy Awards and won for Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.
“And what of Joe”, you might ask? Well fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, the movie flopped at the box office but has a following, as can be seen in the musical adaptation by Scott Hafso and Darcy Phillips called, tad da! Joe vs. The Volcano… the musical! And you can see it in all its glory at Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado where it is making its world premiere.
By now, Joe Banks (Sean Cox), the main character in the story, is probably living it up on some mythical island drinking whatever it is they drink (probably the water) in those exotic places and having a ball because in his past life, Joe was going nowhere in a dead end job that caused him become a hypochondriac and doomed to die within six months because of a rare disease called ‘brain cloud’ or so his Doctor, Doctor Ellison (Jason Heil) diagnosed. “You have some life left”, he tells Joe … “live it well”.
Here’s the scoop. After learning of his six months to live diagnosis from his doctor, strange things began to happen to Joe. He is approached and propositioned by g’billionaire Samuel Graynamore (Jim Chovick) to travel, see the sights in New York and Los Angeles, buy the most expensive clothes and eat in the most lavish restaurants. In other words, live it up all expenses and then some, paid if Joe would agree to sail on Graynamore’s own private yacht, to a little known island in the Pacific called Waponi Woo.
Once there he would become a human sacrifice to help out the natives of this little island by agreeing to throw himself into the once a century erupting volcano on the island. It has to be a human sacrifice and it has to be done on a voluntary basis. Since Joe has only six months to live anyway, or so he thought, he can save the island and its inhabitants and the precious minerals Graynmore needs for his business and be a do gooder. Bottom line, Joe agrees!
With all the problems a saga as this can present, Lamb’s Players Theatre, under the deft direction of Robert Smyth and some outrageously wonderful costumes and head dresses by designer Jeanne Reith, the story gets pretty well defined, moves along at a nice pace but takes an unusually long time to get to where it’s going, and it all happens in the long first act.
More than helpful in the execution of location changes and visual landscapes are Michael McKeon’s projections, Stephanie Celustka’s and Deborah Gilmour Smyth’s theatre rumbling sound design and Mike Buckley’s minimalist set design not to mention the snappy dances by an enthusiastic ensemble/chorus who perform everything from tap, to an hysterically funny ‘bottle dance’ with orange crush cans (the native’s favorite drink) balanced on their heads to Irish line dancing to local native dance rituals. (Colleen Kollar Smith)
Smyth has assembled a multi talented cast with the likes of Cox, who heads up his own theatre company, Intrepid Shakespeare, and who is completely invested as Joe, the extremely talented Eileen Bowman (who pretty much saves this production from the doldrums) who takes on the part of no less than three of the women in Joe’s life and John Rosen who is a kick as Joe’s abusive boss, Mr. Waturi and the more colorful Waponi Chief. Jim Chovick is Joe’s wealthy benefactor and T.J. Antonio Johnson who is noted more for his dramatic prowess than as a song and dance man moves around the stage very nicely, thank you.
The problem with the play/musical is that once the story is established and Joe lands on the island after he survives a multitude of life and death changing threats at sea and he has found his true love, there is no place for the story to go but toward the volcano.
Joe doesn’t seem inclined to struggle with life or death decisions, as it appears the play wants to entertain more than face the realities of what Joe is doing. One would hope that he would have more depth than that, even as he learns (it’s a long story) that the Dr. is a sham and a pawn for Mr. Graynamore and that well…I’ll let you find that out for yourselves.
One can understand why the movie, with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan went nowhere. It just doesn’t jive, whimsical, as it may seem. Since the musical pretty much follows the movie and the score is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a blockbuster one would have look at this production strictly as pure entertainment with no strings attached, no pre judgments, no hidden agenda and giving kudos to Lamb’s for seeing beyond the Volcano with this one.
Jon Lorenz directs the four musicians who manage to fill the theatre nicely with what the limited musical score allows and Nathan Pierson’s lighting design enhances Joe’s nautical journey. Ironically, the one number that is the most engaging sung by Joe with a ukulele is “The Cowboy Song” written by Shanley and taken directly from the movie.
Just as an FYI there are those that follow Joe and his story, (somewhat like a small cult of followers) so don’t make up your minds until after you’ve seen Lamb’s production. You just might be one of them. Enjoy.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: through July 29th
Organization: Lamb’s Players Theatre
Phone: 619-437-6000
Production Type: Musical Comedy
Where: 1142 Orange Avenue, Coronado
Ticket Prices: start at $26.00
Web: lambsplayers.org
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Davis is a San Diego-based theatre critic. She may be contacted at carol.davis@sdjewishworld.com