?The Girl In The Frame
A review by Patrick Shannon, III
This urbane witty musical entirely written and composed by Jeremy
Desmon is a delightful production of the Jefferson Performing
Arts Society on the boards at the Westwego Performing Arts
Theater.
Directed with sophistication and swift pacing by Perry Martin and
deft sparkling musical expertise by Alan Payne the show is a
winner in almost every category.
Laney (Heidi Jackson) and Alex (Sean Patterson) have been living
together for four years. Laney has a job that takes her all over
the world. She is always so busy. Alex is waiting for her to
return from a trip. It is their anniversary. She arrives and
they exchange gifts. It seems they have both bought a picture
frame with a standard picture in it. It’s the same picture of a
beautiful girl in a white dress. Shortly after they comment on
the weirdness of this situation, Laney’s cell phone rings. She
must leave for Spain immediately. It seems the zip has gone out
of their romance. Or do they still love each other? Laney
leaves. Alex settles down for a lonely evening with the beautiful
girl in the picture. Suddenly she appears. She is his perfect
sexual fantasy. While Laney is away they play. Suddenly Laney
returns and she discovers them. In retaliation she has a fantasy
or several and her first male love fantasy appears as a hunky
fireman. They pair off with their perfect sex fantasies and
decide to all live together in the same apartment, but during the
involvement Laney and Alex discover that even with all their
faults, they really do love each other. They give up their
fantasies for each other and accept reality and live happily ever
after.
On a sturdy living room set by David Raphael that seems to have
come out of a box in kit form, Heidi Jackson plays Laney with
smooth charm and she sings with a lyrical and lovely voice. Sean
Patterson plays an endearing and convincing Alex and handles the
songs very well. Jesse Terrebonne plays Evelyn the female sex
fantasy with a vivacious appeal. She belts out her songs with
gusto while her counterpart, Lucan Harms plays the hunky fireman
(and other fantasies) with a lot of stage presence and great
humor, however he seems to have trouble singing. Mr. Harms does
a good job within a certain range but go above that range and he
shouts out his lyrics, veins in his neck pop out, and one gets
the impression his head will explode. This problem becomes
somewhat distracting. However the excellent chemistry between
the performers almost makes up for this distraction and the shows
comes off as a jaunty sophisticated adult fairy tale with witty
lyrics and a lively musical score. Excellent and creative
choreography by Lynne Lawrence is a delight. The bright costumes
are by Shauna Leone and the fine sound design by Shannon R.
Miller with very good lighting by David Guidry.
This delightful cutting edge musical as done by JPAS at the
Westwego Performing Arts Theatre is a refreshing and charming
experience that should not be missed.