In Transit
Opening Night: October 5, 2010
Closing: October 30, 2010
Theater: 59E59 Theaters
In this fresh take on the modern musical, seven performers take on multiple roles and create every note with their own voices for a rich theatrical experience unlike anything you’ve ever seen (or heard) on stage before. Inspired by the rhythms and sounds of life on the subway, In Transit follows an aspiring actress, a fledgling financier, a street-savvy beatboxer, a cab driver, and others as they find their way in New York City. The result is a vivid tapestry of characters and music in the City that never stands still.
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October 5, 2010
They don’t come much more cheery than “In Transit,” the optimism-oozing, a cappella musical that opened on Tuesday night at the 59E59 Street Theaters. Though the show is set mostly on grimy subways and populated by beleaguered characters, rarely a minute goes by onstage without a twinkling eye or a toothy smile. It’s a testament to the company’s pluck that you’ll smile widely too, even as your inner cynic tells you that it’s all being laid on a bit thick.
READ THE REVIEWOctober 6, 2010
Okay. Fine. I admit I am a sucker for acapella singing that features close harmonies. I am also a sucker for a good story or six. In Transit has both, so I was a pig in muck watching this show.
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October 5, 2010
It’s kinda fun to hear those a cappella singing groups in the New York City subways, but an entire evening of it? That’s the basic concept of "In Transit," a new musical presented by Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters. A cast of seven talented singer-actors creates every note of the score without any instruments to back them up. The book, music, and lyrics are credited to four people: Kristen Anderson-Lopez, James-Allen Ford, Russ Kaplan, and Sara Wordsworth. This quartet shares "original concept" credit with an additional two creators, Gregory T. Christopher and Karla Lant. The large creative team may account for the inconsistent feel of the show. Basically a revue following several subway riders as they pursue romance and careers in the Big Apple, "In Transit" features catchy and ingratiating sounds but not particularly original storylines.
READ THE REVIEWOctober 6, 2010
Three sailors on leave in New York City take a ride in the crowded subway and see a poster of Miss Turnstile in the Betty Comden-Adolph Green 1944 Broadway musical On The Town. They spend the rest of the day helping their love-smitten shipmate Gabe to find her. The famous writing team went underground again in 1961 adapting Subways Are for Sleeping, about well-dressed people living in the subway. In the more recent musical Happiness, we followed the lives of a dozen or so New Yorkers stuck in a stalled subway car. You can see that the subway has previously served as a welcoming place for us to observe the lives, hopes and dreams of an ever converging humanity.
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October 6, 2010
A septet of indefatigable performers are at the core of the new a cappella musical In Transit, playing at 59E59 Theaters. The show, written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, James-Allen Ford, Russ Kaplan and Sara Wordsworth, and directed by Joe Calarco, fuses topical revue material with the interlocking stories of four New Yorkers, as they go about their business in the city’s subway system. But the combination proves to be an uneasy one, and ultimately the revue material saps the plotline of any forward momentum.
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