As in John Doyle’s reconceptions of Sweeney Todd and Company, the actors in Pearson’s cast also serve as the musicians. Unlike Doyle’s much discussed pair of London-to-New York revisals, however, this time the concept really works, and not just as a gimmick, but as something organic to the story. With a cast made up of quadruple threats, concept, material, and talent come together with impressive results.

Finn’s autobiographical musical is based on the writer’s own experience with a life-threatening brain tumor, and much of it takes place in the hero’s mind as he lies comatose, surrounded by family, colleagues, and loved ones.

But rest assured. Since Finn is also the creator of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, it should come as no surprise that despite its grim subject matter, there are almost as many laughs as tears. A New Brain also features one of the most gay-positive depictions of a same-gender relationship ever seen on stage, so much so that anyone concerned about “preserving marriage” should see this eye-opener of a show.

At lights up, Gordon Schwinn (Ryan Wagner), is busy at work composing a new song for obnoxious children’s TV host Mr. Bungee (Jesse Bradley) when he decides to take a break for lunch with his agent Rhoda (Courtney Walton), running into a homeless woman (Kaitlyn Etter) on the way. Suddenly, Gordon clutches his head, collapses, and is rushed to the hospital, where he learns that he has a brain tumor and fluid build-up in his brain. Though his chances of surviving an operation are far from good, it is his only option, and Gordon, who fears dying before his best songs have been written, agrees to the surgery. Gordon’s partner Roger (Jeffrey Aiken) is away for the day sailing, but he soon arrives at Gordon’s bedside, as does Gordon’s loving mother (Aimee Karlin). Tended to by a handsome doctor (Gregg Hammer), a bitchy female nurse (Ashley Kane), a kind-hearted though weight-obsessed male nurse (Luke Jacobs), and a protestant minister (Andrew Roubal) Gordon undergoes the operation and while comatose, has Felliniesque dreams of the people in his life, including the homeless woman.

It is A New Brain’s surreal quality that makes Pearson’s concept of actors as musicians work so well. Unlike the recent Sweeney Todd revival, which never seemed like an honest-to-goodness Sweeney Todd, this time the concept really works, and having seen Peason’s production, it’s hard to imagine A New Brain working as well when done “traditionally.”

At various times during the show, keyboardists include Wagner, Jacobs, Karlin, Hammer, and (most often) Roubal. Hammer is the most frequent percussionist, but Etter and Bradley also play the drums, among others, and Bradley proves himself a fine guitarist. Kane plays clarinet in several numbers. Since characters burst into song (A New Brain is almost entirely sung through) and spontaneous dance (there’s a sensational tango number near the end), it’s hardly strange that they should also provide the accompaniment, especially since much of the action is happening in a comatose patient’s brain.

There’s not a weak link in the cast of ten, and when all are harmonizing, as in “Heart And Music,” “Sitting Becalmed in the Lee of Cuttyhunk,” “Time And Music,” and the grand finale “I Feel So Much Spring,” the results are breathtaking, and deeply moving. There’s also the very funny “Yes,” which features the following gem of a lyric (ostensibly for a children’s TV show): “When someone says, ‘Would you like to lose your virginity,’ someone with whom you have no affinity, say ‘No, no, no, no!’” Solos are particularly memorable. Jacobs shines in the very funny overweight man’s lament “Eating Myself Up Alive,” Etter belts like a young Merman in “Change,” and Karlin sings an emotional “Music Still Plays On” to rival Penny Fuller’s original. (It’s especially moving to see son Wagner at the keyboard accompanying mother Karlin in this number.)

A word about the cast. All ten are Cal State Fullerton students (or recent grads), all but one from the Musical Theatre Department. This production originated last year at CSF, and made it onto OC Weekly theater critic Dave Barton’s list of Top 10 shows of 2007. A savvy Barton invited director and cast to perform a return engagement at his Rude Guerilla Theatre in Santa Ana, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Don’t let the fact that the actors are all a decade (or two or three) younger than the characters they play turn you off. That this originated as a “student production” is soon forgotten, and one can only be grateful to Barton for giving this brilliant A New Brain new life.

Some of Pearson’s best moments as director come in the production numbers. The 1950s influenced “Gordo's Law of Genetics” features a “girl group” backup and the men adding their “bum bum bums” to the mix. “Sitting Becalmed in the Lee of Cuttyhunk” has the cast surrounding Gordon’s bed as if on a sail boat, with Etter as the figurehead at the bow.

Perhaps best of all is the red-lit “Brain Dead,” which features the entire cast, with Wagner and Aiken dancing the sexiest man-to-man tango I’ve ever seen.

At the heart of A New Brain is Gordon’s relationship with Roger. Wagner and Aiken bring this deeply loving relationship to very real life, and their moments together ought to melt even the most homophobic hearts. When they duet “Just Go,” there may have been dry eyes in the house, but they weren’t mine.

Wagner is handsome, sexy, and a terrific actor/singer whose assured performance anchors the production. He is perfectly complemented by Aiken , who sings like an angel and shares great chemistry with Wagner. Bradley has mucho fun being a mean-hearted children’s TV host, and is a fantastic guitarist. Etter is the best belter of the bunch, and Kane is not only a wonderfully bitchy nurse but has a sensational high soprano belt to boot. Jacobs steals every scene he’s in, and Hammer is not only one heck of a percussionist but looks great in a wifebeater. Walton does fine/funny work as Rhoda and Roubal is a gifted pianist with a soaring tenor voice. Completing the ensemble is Karlin, the sole Acting major, but with a voice at the level of her acting chops sure to guarantee her many musical theater roles.

There is no set design per se. Just a keyboard, a hospital bed, and a set of drum. It doesn’t matter.

Gregory Nabours and Pearson were co-musical directors, E.J. Brown did the lighting, and David Hernandez assistant directed. All deserve major kudos, with a standing ovation to creator/director Pearson.

Patrick Pearson created this actor-as-musician A New Brain out of necessity. Given a grand total of $100 to mount the original CSF production, it was either be without an accompanist throughout most of the rehearsal period, or have his cast perform the accompaniment. Necessity has indeed proved the mother of invention here, with truly spectacular results.

Even with gas prices what they are, it behooves every lover of musical theater to make the drive to Santa Ana to experience this must-see production. The future of musical theater is in good hands indeed.

Rude Guerilla Theatre, 202 North Broadway Santa Ana, CA. Through July 6. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00, Sundays at 2:30. Tickets: 714 547 4688

--Steven Stanley
May 31, 2008

By STACY DAVIES
Thursday, June 5, 2008 - 3:02 pm

Raising Your IQ
Rude Guerrilla Theater turns mediocrity into magic with A New Brain

Musicals are often brushed aside by serious theater-goers (and serious theater creators) as slightly retarded fluff, absent real intelligence and desire to pull controversies and issues out of the shadows—one look at the current lineup of “family fun” in the Broadway Top 10 (Wicked, Mamma Mia!, The Lion King, The Producers) proves they have a point. Mostly. There have been times, however, in between Oklahoma and Cats, Phantom and Hairspray, that a musical has set its crosshairs on a worthy target and blown it away. Think Jesus Christ Superstar, Hair—maybe even Rent.

William Finn and James Lapine’s A New Brain, directed by Patrick Pearson at the Rude Guerilla Theater Co., is none of the above, however—a B-grade musical that’s too alternative for Lion King lovers and yet about two dozen memorable songs short of becoming a real alt-hit. This isn’t to say it’s bad; quite the opposite. If anything, Finn and Lapine prove that all any mediocre story needs is some snazzy tunage and enthusiastic actors to turn lame into electrifying. Yes, it’s cheating—this story of a young gay writer/musician who has a near-death experience from a brain abnormality is hopelessly dull (it’s set in a hospital!), and the theme of how almost losing your life can super-charge one to live more and complain less is cartoonishly hopeful (unless it’s happened to you, I guess).

But, in the midst of some dregginess, we get inventive songs from waitresses singing about calamari appetizers, a mother singing about how all of her son’s bad traits come from the father (not to mention the classic line, “Why is the smart son always the gay son?”), and characters who point out “I’m the thin nurse” and “I’m the nice nurse.” Clever quips can certainly distract, and Brain has quips aplenty.

The story itself meanders through our ailing hero Gordon’s life, in which characters are always in song. We meet his mother (who will fix everything and focuses on cleaning Gordon’s apartment while he’s in the ER), his boyfriend Roger (who likes to sail), his boss Mr. Bungee (a children’s-show host dressed like a frog), his agent Rhoda (who guilts Gordon into finishing the Bungee song on what might be his last night of consciousness before his operation), his gay male nurse (the nice one, who keeps trying to get into Gordon’s pants), his saucy female nurse (the thin one, who loves delivering bad news), his doctors and a priest. Not very flashy, but stick all these people into a small performance space, minimally prop it, and get each one to play an instrument—clarinet, drums, keyboard, acoustic guitar and bass—and the “wow” factor shoots up about a zillion notches.

The musical arrangements and the choreography are the lifeblood of this production, in fact. Though they could have pre-recorded everything, as many shows do, Pearson and musical director Gregory Nabours envisioned something much more, and it pays off ten-fold. Add to this the casting of some truly gorgeous voices (Aimee Karlin, Jeffrey Aiken and Kaitlyn Etter certainly stand out), and you have one elevated, seamless romp that can send chills up your neck and sprout tears in the most cynical of eyes. That’s called going from a B to an A, using extra credit points.

A New Brain at the Rude Guerrilla Theater Co., 200 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, (714) 547-4688; www.rudeguerrilla.org. Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2:30 p.m. Through July 6. $25.

Heart and music infuse "A New Brain" in the shrewdly spare, gorgeously sung revival at Rude Guerrilla Theater Company. William Finn and James Lapine's 1998 tuner based on composer-lyricist Finn's battle with a brain tumor remains delightfully off-kilter and quietly moving.

"Arteriovenous malformation" is the actual diagnosis that eventually greets frazzled Gordon Schwinn (Ryan Wagner), a songwriter for children's television whose tyrannical producer-star (Jesse Bradley) plays a frog. Gordon's deadline panic turns to graver matters when he collapses during dinner with agent Rhoda (Courtney Walton). At the hospital, Gordon, Rhoda and his lovingly crazy-making mom (Aimee Karlin) grapple with the medical team while awaiting Roger (Jeffrey Aiken), Gordon's lover.

Thereafter, our Finn surrogate faces his deepest fear -- dying before writing all the songs inside him. After surgery leaves Gordon comatose, "A New Brain" becomes a surreal parable about the healing power of art.

Finn's infectiously quirky score and Lapine's angular scenario examine some themes similar to those explored in their "Falsettos." Yet the personal thrust of "A New Brain" is singularly special, and though this production comes from Cal State Fullerton, it's anything but academic. Patrick Pearson's inventive staging sends his vibrant cast sailing around Wagner's restive, touching hero, seamlessly trading off accompaniment duties in post-John Doyle manner under Pearson and Gregory Nabours' co-musical direction.

Ashley Kane and Luke Jacobs as priceless contrasting nurses, Andrew Roubal's minister and Gregg Hammer's doctor prove as vital to the whole as Aiken's golden-voiced simplicity and Walton's poised perkiness. Kaitlyn Etter brings house-rattling chops to bag lady Lisa, and Karlin's intensely focused Mother and Bradley's guitar-wielding Mr. Bungee are inspired.

Everyone is a tad too young, but why quibble? This buoyant "Brain" lands firmly inside the mind (and heart and music) of William Finn, and it's an enchanting place to be.

-- David C. Nichols

"A New Brain," Rude Guerrilla Theater Company, 202 N. Broadway, Santa Ana. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Dark July 4. Ends July 6. $25. (714) 547-4688. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

A New Brain, May 30 through July 6, 2008

A co-production of Cal State Fullerton and the Rude Guerrilla Theatre

Currently at the Rude Guerrilla Theatre, 202 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, Ca.

For tickets and information about A New Brain, call 714-547-4688 or log on to rudeguerrilla.org.

            In the world of the American Musical Theatre, William Finn is something else altogether. In the main, writers in this world take their stories from literature and cinema, but William Finn, with the help of his frequent collaborator James Lapine, finds his stories within the everyday events of his own life. Finn cuts his musicals from the whole cloth of his life and sets them to scores that crackle with the rhythms of modern pop music. A New Brain, now in production at the Rude Guerrilla Theatre in Santa Ana, is a pristine example of the art of William Finn, the musical autobiographer. A New Brain tells the story of a young composer working, as it turns out, for a children television show. The producer/host of this show is a bit of a prick, and the young composer dreams of finding a way out of his indentures: selling his Broadway show, writing for a Pop star, anything. While having an after-work dinner with a colleague, the young composer falls inexplicably to the floor. His fall comes as the consequence of a rare brain disorder; a risky operation is needed or death is certain. Members of his family, an over-protective Jewish mother, his colleague and best friend from the television show and his emotionally stable mariner of a lover, rush to his side. Their presence is as disconcerting as it is comforting. The surgery is risky and could end in coma or death. After an all too lengthy wait, the composer recovers and his life returns to normal.

            William Finn is, indeed, something else altogether. I can think of no other composer in the history of the American Musical that sets her/his own life stories to music. That fact alone makes his work unique in modern American theatre. His musicals are also beautifully written, well-crafted pieces of dramaturgy, thanks in large part to his collaboration with James Lapine, one of the American Musical’s finest living book writers. The stories Finn and Lapine tell are as recognizably literary as are Garrison Keiller’s News from Lake Woebegone. Outside the individuality of his literary voice, however, Mr. Finn’s music is not especially memorable. Since the defacto retirement of Stephen Sondheim, the American Musical has been blessed with a small list of musical masters. Ricky Ian Gordon, Michael John LaChiusa & Adam Guettel, among others, have written a string of glorious scores for the American stage. Jason Robert Brown, another pop stylist in the American theatre, spices his gentle romances with songs of enough wit and poetry to remind this reviewers of master singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne. William Finn’s music can’t compete with either the lush textures of LaChiusa, Guettel & Gordon or the rhythmic wit of Jason Robert Brown. Music aside, William Finn is still a helluva story teller.

            The production of A New Brain currently being presented at the Rude Guerrilla Theatre in Santa Ana, originated across the street from the Rude Guerrilla at the Grand Central, the Santa Ana extension of Cal State Fullerton’s school of the arts. The production is directed by Patrick Pearson and it stars the original cast of CSUF students and recent CSUF graduates. The production is an appealing one, certainly, but it’s far too energetic for a theatre as small as The Rude Guerrilla. Please understand; my complaint is purely as technical one. The Rude Guerrilla is, as I’ve said, small in size and, acoustically speaking, it’s extremely live. The singers in this cast are blessed with enormous voices, and they are determined to make their voices heard to the back of the house. The back of the house, however, is only twenty feet from the action. A New Brain is a through composed musical and Mr. Finn’s lyrics are as intricate of dialogue. Given that, and given the relentless enormity of some of these voices, I couldn’t make out many of the Mr. Finn’s words. I could hear them, I just couldn’t decipher them.

            There are stand-out performances, certainly. Ryan Wagner plays Gordon Schwinn, the young songwriter. Mr. Wagner is gentle, easy to like and possessed of a perfectly lovely tenor voice. As Roger, Gordon’s lover, Jeffrey Aiken is a sweet natured, wonderful presence in this story. As Gordon’s mother, Aimee Karlin is a bit young, but she readily finds a mother’s rage, her clinginess and her devotion to Gordon. Luke Jacobs plays Richard, the nice nurse. Mr. Jacobs is delightfully funny as the nurse who’s infatuated attempts at Gordon’s border on stalking. Ashley Kane is uproarious as both an over-enthusiastic waitress and a Nurse who heals her patients with pain. Mr. Jacobs and Ms. Kane are both richly gifted comedians and their time onstage, whether working together or with other cast members, is delicious. Kaitlyn Etter plays Lisa, a homeless woman. Ms. Etter is a fine enough actress with a wonderful voice that, unfortunately, is far too large for this venue; a little mezzo voce is in order. Jesse Bradley plays Mr. Bungee, the foul tempered amphibian who hosts the children’s show Gordon works for. Mr. Bradley is an excellent actor and a gifted musician to boot.

            The uncredited set design is a bare set, decorated with an electric piano, a drum set and, at center stage, a gurney. The gurney moves about and the actors bring props and set dressings on with them to change the gurney’s appearance to fit each scene. The set’s simplicity fits Mr. Finn’s personal style quite well. This production relies on actors providing their own musical accompaniment, a la John Doyle’s popular Sondheim revivals. Ashley Kane plays a clarinet, several actors play the piano, and several others play either the drums, the bass or the guitar. A couple play all three, most notably, Mr. Bradley. If there is anything the production is in bad need of, it is a sharper sound design. The orchestrations are not well mixed and, as with the voices, they occasionally overwhelm the hall. E.J. Brown’s naturalistic light design suits this production well.

            No one in the American Theatre tells a tale quite the way William Finn does. Cal State Fullerton has put together a fine production of one of Mr. Finn’s most eccentric, perhaps even one of his most moving works. It was wise of Rude Guerrilla to revive the production. The production, at least on opening night, was not yet tuned to the venue, but this is a technical matter. It can be fixed. So go see A New Brain and let the folks at the theatre do the tuning.