I first heard the music of Joe Iconis at the Metropolitan Room last fall when the lovely singer Lorinda Lisitza performed Triumphant Baby: The Songs of Iconis and Maddock, a collection of Iconis' songs with his NYU/Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre writing program collaborator, Robert Maddock. At the time, though I liked what I heard and was entertained, I couldn't help feeling Maddock's lyrics were of a higher caliber than Iconis' rather pedestrian music, despite Lisitza turning every song into gold with her sharp delivery and terrific voice. Having now heard more of Iconis' work, this time as both composer and lyricist in Things to Ruin: The Songs of Joe Iconis at Joe's Pub on January 29, my initial impressions of this talented Long Island native have solidified into a more concrete viewpoint.

Unfortunately, especially for young musical theatre enthusiasts eager to anoint the next Jonathan Larson or Jason Robert Brown, while I find Iconis' work both competent and interesting, I also find is musically bland and lyrically uninspired. It certainly didn't help that Things to Ruin, directed by John Simpkins and starring Michael Kadin Craig, Katrina Rose Dideriksen, Badia Farha, Dana Zihlman Harshaw, Matt Hinkley, Lance Rubin and Jason F. Williams, had terrible sound problems. Ear-splittingly loud with every performer over-amplified, lyrics were often difficult to discern and little to no dynamics were in evidence all evening. It was hard to tell if the volume was a choice or the result of the Pub’s sound technician suffering from premature deafness (due to many other similar evenings, no doubt!). The performers, too, all who appeared to be suffering from American Idol envy, wailed and screamed at the top of the lungs the whole show, laboring under the misconceived notion that louder is better. Someone should tell them it's not.

Technical problems aside, Iconis' songs tend to follow a repetitive three to four chord progression that, while perfectly acceptable in generic pop writing, tends to sound the same after several tunes. It was revealing that the placement of three "ballads" (though I use that term loosely here), "Social Worker," "Dodge Ball" and "Albuquerque Anyway," were all basically the same song, sung three times with three slightly different melodies and hooks. It made sense to group them together but, in doing so, Iconis and Simpkins only pointed up their inherent similarity. Iconis' melodies are typically rudimentary and, though perfectly hum-able, don't really exhibit any profound level of inspiration. Lyrically, his work pales in comparison to Maddock's with a paucity of wit and a reliance on four-letter words and single words drawn out into multi-syllable phrases. Additionally, though Iconis writes the occasional nice bridge, his verses all tend to go on too long with each song having one verse too many. He should edit himself a bit more closely, favoring content over form and specificity over generalization. The performers, like Iconis' music, were perfectly fine if not especially memorable, with the exception of Katrina Rose Dideriksen and Badia Farha whose sensational voices and poised stage presence set them apart from the rest.

With that said, Iconis has a rabid following of friends and family who are convinced he's the next great songwriter for the American musical theatre. I have my doubts but it's possible the work I've heard is that of someone in high school and college just beginning to find his voice. Perhaps he'll surprise me and take flight with his future writing. Let's hope so since we need all the theatre writers we can get.

David Hurst
Cabaret Scenes
Janaury 28, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.org