‘The Fortress of Solitude’ gets an uneven musical treatment

The Fortress of Solitude relies so much on musical pastiche that at times it feels like an old K-Tel commercial, this one pitching “The Super Hits of ’80s New York.” You can almost picture band names scrolling down — the Ramones, Talking Heads, Run-DMC — as Michael Friedman’s new songs play out. But a musical valentine to a lost era doesn’t necessarily make an emotionally involving show. Based on Jonathan Lethem’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, Fortress beams us back to the Brooklyn of the late ’70s and early ’80s. The area now known as Boerum Hill was Gowanus back then, and predominantly black. So when young, white Dylan Ebdus (Adam Chanler-Berat) moves in, he’s a bully magnet — until his neighbor Mingus Rude (Kyle Beltran) takes him under his wing. The two 12-year-olds like the same comics and music. Dylan’s especially fascinated by Mingus’ dad, Barrett Rude Jr. (Kevin Mambo), a former member of a vocal group called the Subtle Distinctions.