by Gary Wien, NewJerseyStage.com
"Calvin Berger" is indeed a musical, but it is also first and foremost a comedy and a damn good one at that! This absolutely hilarious production features a stellar cast, wonderful music, brilliant direction, and more funny one-liners than offered in the best Neil Simon plays. I found myself laughing out loud more times in two hours than I can ever remember. I'm not usually one for musical theatre, but this play by Barry Wyner has me changing the way I feel about the genre.
The premise behind the play is the familiar tale of Cyrano de Bergerac. The title character (played by Noah Weisberg) is the modern day Cyrano - a smart, geeky high school senior with a nose that he perceives to be grotesquely over-sized. Calvin is in love with Rosanna (played by Krystal Joy Brown), a beautiful girl who also happens to be one of the most popular kids in school and seemingly out of Calvin's league. The play opens with Calvin dreaming of Rosanna, but soon coming to the realization that his nose knows the two will never be together.
"My only hope is to make a lot of money and get a job� a nose job," said Calvin. "Of all the organs to be well-endowed!"
Meanwhile, Calvin is far from alone in his insecurities. His best friend, Bret (played by Dana Steingold), conceals her own love for Calvin while being concerned over the size of her ass being too large for her jeans. Matt (played by David Hull) is a dumb jock who is once again playing the part of the new kid at school - something he has done throughout his life. Even the seemingly perfect Rosanna worries about whether people only like her for her looks. They all reveal their personal insecurities in the play's opening number, "Security Meltdown".
Calvin would do anything for Rosanna, so when she asks him to find out if Matt would like to go out with her, he agrees to talk to him. The scene where Calvin first sees Matt after wrestling practice is hysterical! The setup involves a tall, scrawny looking brainiac on one side while a well-sculptured jock shows up shirtless on the other. It's one of those instances where a picture truly tells a thousand words. Calvin knows he can't compete with someone like Matt, but in talking with him he discovers that Matt is far from perfect himself. It turns out he has a horrible problem talking to pretty girls; He gets tongue-tied, makes strange wheezing sounds, and actually becomes dumber than he already is. Calvin decides to help him by preparing love letters that he can give to Rosanna tells her exactly what he should say to her. Together, the two believe they can create the perfect man. In the process, they seek the answer to the question: does she fall for the man or for his words?
While this is going on, Bret is trying to find a way to tell Calvin that she wants to be more than just friends, but she's rather tongue-tied approaching this subject as well. The play reminds us that high school and dating was sort of hell for everyone from the popular kids to the jocks to the geeks and the kids who couldn't even pretend to be normal.
Before the play, George Street's Artistic Director, David Saint, spoke of how Barry Wyner's work reminded him of the plays of Jonathan Larson (Rent, tick, tick� BOOM!). I can definitely hear similarities through the music as both composers feature wonderful harmonies and lyrics that deal with contemporary issues. But the play also conjured up images of what might have happened if a young Woody Allen had starred and written in an episode of "Saved By The Bell" put to music. There are zany and brilliant one-liners, sight gags, and the same range from brilliance to stupidity that Allen's early work featured. Credit has to go to both Barry Wyner and acclaimed director, Kathleen Marshall, for creating such a wonderful world to visit.
As I mentioned in the opening, I have never considered myself the typical audience for musical theatre. While I love seeing revivals of dramas and comedies, the classic musicals have never impressed me at all. Seeing new works such as this play made me realize that we sometimes forget how much current references can play a difference the way we perceive a play. "Calvin Berger" contains references to such topics as current technology, popular songs and popular movies. These are all things that may seem out of place ten or twenty years from now. In fact, some of the references used in "Calvin Berger" seemed a bit out of place for a group of current high school kids, although the somewhat dated references didn't seem so much a distraction as a reminder that the play was probably written more for those a generation or two out of high school rather than those who are current students. The idea of dated references got me thinking about the classic musicals. Maybe the reason I never appreciated them was because they were filled with similarly contemporary references or slang that simply went over my head. It's the same way we can enjoy Shakespeare, but rarely get the same experience as those who seeing the plays three or four hundred years ago did.
I found myself realizing that I could love musical theatre when it revolves around a comedy. Rather than having actors sing simply for the sake of singing, these songs all seemed to serve a purpose. Several scenes within "Calvin Berger" featured actors revealing far more of their character within a song than could be possible elsewhere. And by revealing this information in comedic songs like "Mr. Potato Head", it not only kept my interest but also kept me rolling in the aisle!
In the end, this is a great play that reminds you of everything you loved and hated about high school. If you were a fan of John Hughes films from the 80s or never missed an episode of "Saved By The Bell" - you will absolutely love this play. As with John Hughes films, "Calvin Berger" lets us know that while everybody may seem like they have the answers for everybody else, few know what they should do themselves. Nobody is really alone in high school. We're all locked in our rooms with our own insecurities, but thankfully, we all get to leave high school behind at some point�
*** Photo: Krystal Joy Brown as Rosanna, Noah Weisberg as Calvin and Dana Steingold as Bret. Photo by Richard Termine
