Ben
Brantley

February 29, 2016

Wild is not quite the word for “The Wildness.” This tuneful, thin-skinned production, which opened on Monday night at Ars Nova with the subtitle “Sky-Pony’s Rock Fairy Tale,” often feels as cozy as the giant patchwork quilt that canopies its runway of a set. This is perhaps appropriate for a work, a co-production with the Play Company, that seeks to dispel the demons of doubt that plague sensitive souls navigating early adulthood. “We are just like you,” the ensemble members sing in the show’s opening number, extending their hands to the audience. “We are searching, too; we all are, we all do. We are the lost ones.” Just who “we” are would appear to be that latter-day lost generation known as the “agnostic, generally apathetic millennials,” as the production’s fetching and visibly pregnant lead singer, Lauren Worsham, puts it in a sort of prologue to the show that follows.