Last week, Marissa and I went to see American Repertory Theater’s new musical, PROMETHEUS BOUND. I had the best of intentions when it came to seeing it and reviewing it. I planned on writing my review right when I got home, when the material was fresh in my mind, bouncing around my head, me still wired with the adrenaline an all-new rock musical often gives.
But, I couldn’t do it. I felt like I needed some time to process what I’d seen. I mean, I shouldn’t jump right on it, right? The first impression is always the strongest, I should let it sit a bit, right?
Well, to candy coat it a bit…. there wasn’t much good to take from this show.
Start with the positives. Gavin Creel. Shocker, right? Gavin Creel is absolutely extraordinary in this show. He knows exactly what he is saying (keep reading) and doing at any given moment in the show, truly guiding the audience in addition to telling the story. I really don’t think enough accolades can be thrown upon Creel here. The rest of the cast is also highly skilled, with the other leading players similarly guiding the audience with their actions, making everything somewhat clear.
Ah, somewhat clear. There is the very problem with this show. In the program for the show, among all the actors bios and the notes from the creative team, there is a half sheet of paper with the song list and short bios for each of the characters in the play, for those not up on their ancient Greek mythology. Bravo to whoever decided to add this to the program… because the audience is given absolutely no help from bookwriter and lyricist Steven Sater. Like he did in his book for Spring Awakening, Sater uses old fashioned, mostly academic language for his dialogue and lyrics, completely alienating the audience. Perhaps its a clever ploy with the marketing department to make the audience have to come back for a second or third to understand the language, but if it wasn’t for the actors selling the gibberish like crazy, I would have been COMPLETELY lost. The lyrics, set to music by System of a Down’s Serj Tankian were just as bad if not worst, as the songs often had lyrics that went by in a blink of an eye (much like the band’s signature sound).
I don’t mean to say that, aside from the performances, there’s absolutely nothing positive to take from the show. Tankian’s score is passable - nothing game changing, but certainly created some rather strong moments. The staging by Diane Paulus is absolutely wonderful, using nearly every square inch of A.R.T.’s OBERON wonderfully. The costumes were nothing to write home about, very much matching the rock score. The message and theme of the show is shockingly relevant, considering when the source material was written. This had the potential to be a very important musical, given what’s going on politically in the world…. but alas.
