As visually vivid at times as it is more often aurally assaulting, director Jennifer Alice Acker’s production of the feminist punk rock musical “Lizzie” for Actor’s Express is probably the closest that most ordinary theatergoers will ever get to attending a Cannibal Corpse death metal concert.
The show is inspired by the grisly true story of Lizzie Borden, who stood trial but was acquitted for the ax murders of her abusive father and conniving stepmother in 1892 Massachusetts. The book is credited to Tim Maner, although his dialogue is fairly minimal; instead, a lot of the plot exposition is conveyed through about 20 excessively loud and largely unintelligible songs, composed by Steven Cheslik-Demeyer and Alan Stevens Hewitt, with lyrics by Cheslik-Demeyer and Maner.
Credit: Casey Gardner Ford
Credit: Casey Gardner Ford
Belting them out at the tops of their lungs — with microphones in hand, over and above the body mics with which they’re already wired — are the four members of the acting ensemble, qualified stage performers all, who strut and posture as tangible rock ‘n’ roll stars as much as they portray genuine characters: Jasmine Renee Ellis in the title role, who fancies herself at one point as a “Yankee Clytemnestra”; and a veritable Greek chorus of backup singers, featuring Jessica De Maria as her older sister, Christina Leidel as their Irish housemaid and Megan Zhang as her intimate confidante.
Music director Ashley Prince (on keyboards) conducts a ferocious band that also includes Fuji Fujimoto (bass), Jen Hodges (drums), Deisha Oliver (cello) and Be Walton (a singular sensation on guitar).
At different intervals, the show recalls everything from “Tommy” and “Sweeney Todd” to “Rent” and “Spring Awakening,” without ever comparing very favorably to any of them. Some of the flashier musical numbers are replete with displays of strobe lights and smoke-machine emissions (all the more reason to wear a mask these days), but its dramatic narrative remains conversely dull and murky.
Credit: Casey Gardner Ford
Credit: Casey Gardner Ford
Notwithstanding that most of “Lizzie” is conceived as one big, loud rock concert anyway, to suggest that indeed it might have sufficed to present it in an “in-concert” format — with the cast simply standing at center stage, performing the songs and filling in the necessary plot details as so much banter in between — would have deprived us of valuable contributions from Acker’s design team. The stark, striking lighting is by Maranda DeBusk. And costume designer Alan Yeong’s Goth-influenced work accentuates lots of black lace and leather boots, as well as chic brocade skirts and jackets.
Acker, better known for her acting (most recently as the lawyer Sarah Weddington in Horizon’s “Roe”), demonstrates an unexpectedly sharp and stylish directorial flair. The muddled script is entirely out of her hands, alas, and those of her actors, too. Lost in all the dark and convoluted commotion are many opportunities to shed much light as a character study of tortured souls, in terms of the dysfunctional family dynamics between Ellis and De Maria, or the complicated kinship between Ellis and Zhang — never mind the show’s feminist protestations about “burning down the patriarchy” or whatever.
The most intriguing and fascinating portrait on view is Leidel’s subtly layered and relatively nuanced turn as the vaguely insinuating, slightly menacing young housekeeper. On the one hand, that’s not overly surprising, given some of her previous work (in Legacy’s “The Miracle Worker,” Theatrical Outfit’s “Indecent” or Georgia Ensemble’s “Vanity Fair”). But in “Lizzie,” on the other hand, she follows Acker’s lead in the sense of branching out in a bold and unpredictable direction. Whoever thought she might have a headbanging, heavy metal diva in her bag of tricks?
THEATER REVIEW
“Lizzie”
Through July 24. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. $35-$40 ($20 for students). Conant Performing Arts Center (at Oglethorpe University), 4484 Peachtree Rd. N.E., Brookhaven. 404-607-7469. www.actors-express.com.
Bottom line: Alternately dazzling and deafening.
