Nobody Loves You
This new, original musical from Itamar Moses (book and
lyrics) and Gaby Alter (music and lyrics), conceives a reality dating show,
"Nobody Loves You," and for 90 minutes explores whether or not one character’s
assertion is true: “You can perform or you can connect; you can’t do both.”
At rise, we meet Jeff (Bryan Fenkart), an academic who loathes
reality TV. He is an ontology student trying to complete his thesis while his
girlfriend tunes into the season finale of "Nobody Loves You." In short order,
she deems them incompatible, breaks up with him and declares she intends to
audition to be a contestant on the reality show. To prove a point and to win
her back, Jeff decides to audition, too. Lo and behold, Jeff is accepted as a
contestant and his ex is not. He rationalizes that he should stay on the show
in order to research his thesis, trying to prove that reality TV is thoroughly
unrealistic, that you can’t connect while performing.
It’s fairly deep territory for such a shallow medium
(reality TV, that is, not theatre). Luckily, we have able writers laying the
groundwork and a director, Michelle Tattenbaum, who harkened back to
traditional musical theatre tropes and techniques when visioning the show.
Nobody Loves You,
the musical at Second Stage, has its wonderfully cheese-tastic moments, but
they work because those moments of performance are seen in the
show-within-the-show. The moments of connection, played out by a terrific
company (albeit one that lacks diversity, noteworthy since reality shows
usually go out of their way to look like a Benetton ad), are sincere and
heartfelt, without dallying into treacle or melodrama. The writers were clearly
going for such a division.
During a post-show discussion with the writers and director,
Alter confirmed he consciously used different music styles for different
characters and settings in the show. For example, "Nobody Loves You" is
hosted by pretty boy Byron (played with slick charm by Heath Calvert).
Everything this automaton sings is 90s slow jam pastiche. While I dig some 90s
slow jams, the genre is used here to signify style and no substance. Contrast
that with the more folk-tinged numbers sung by Jeff and his love interest,
producer Jenny (Aleque Reid), which are meant to express actual and true
emotion.
What was most fascinating to me was the similarity to the classic
Robert Redford political film, The
Candidate. I don’t know if Alter and Moses (Completeness) intended to suggest this connection, but I couldn’t
help but see Jeff as Bill McKay-esque. If you remember, Redford is McKay, the
titular candidate. At first, he is reluctant to run, eschewing politics and
campaigning as a joke and a circus, at best. The idealist is convinced,
eventually, to run and gets off to a good start, saying what he actually
believes and not becoming part of a spin machine. But soon, he is consumed by the
business of political management and finds himself a cartoon of the very thing
he claimed to despise.
Similarly, Jeff has noble intentions when he agrees to stay
on "Nobody Loves You." Like McKay before him, he quickly is consumed by the fame
monster and ends up performing more than connecting. With the ubiquity of
reality TV shows and their inevitable “stars,” this is something we can all
relate to (with chagrin, perhaps), and so like some of the best musicals, Nobody Loves You says something about
our society.
Nobody Loves You comes to Second Stage after a production at
San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre and a festival presentation. When I saw it, early
in previews, there were still some lighting and sound cues to be worked out.
Those easily fixable challenges notwithstanding, I could see Nobody Loves You having either a brief
run on Broadway, or a celebrated and storied run off-Broadway and regionally.
(Not that it’s my job to figure that out, of course…)
Visit Second Stage to learn more about the show and to
purchase tickets.
Nobody Loves You plays through August 11 and stars Health Calvert (Bloody Bloody AndrewJackson; Hair), Bryan Fenkart (Memphis), Roe Hartrampf, Autumn Hurlbert, Leslie
Kritzer (The Memory Show), Lauren Molina, Rory O’Malley (The Book of Mormon)
and Aleque Reid.
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