February House (Gabriel Kahane)

A couple of years ago, I spotted Sherril Tippins, February House, on a library shelf and checked it out on a whim.  Though it sat beside my reading chair for several weeks, maybe months, I never even opened it because more professional reading duties beckoned.  Apparently Gabriel Kahane was able to align the book with his professional duties better than I, for when the Public Theatre commissioned a new work from him, he decided to base the book of his next musical on Tippins' work. 

The narrative arc is the story of George Davis' efforts (both high-minded and low-minded at the same time) to create an inexpensive living community for artists.  The audience watches him lure Carson McCullers, W. H. Auden (and his lover), Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, Erica Mann, and Gypsy Rose Lee into taking up residence at 7 Middagh Street in Brooklyn during 1940-1941, and we watch them leave, one-by-one (sometimes two-by-two), until Davis is left alone in the crumbling Victorian.

The cast and direction of this production at Long Wharf (before it moves to NYC in April) were surprisingly good.  (I'm not a fan of musicals.)  Perhaps that's because this musical could fall under the genre of "chamber musical": no big rousing numbers, only two musicians (generally playing piano and banjo), and plenty of dialogue to keep the storyline moving along.  

Recommend.


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