Gretchen Cryer & Gracie Hyland
House on Fire
The Green Room 42, NYC, September 15, 2024
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg
Gretchen Cryer was one of the pioneer creators of the off-Broadway musicals in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. Her works, often in collaboration with Nancy Ford, were experimental and political, imaginative and charming. Now Is the Time for All Good Men, The Last Sweet Days of Isaac, and I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road all had their fans, and at least the latter two have had revivals across the country. Quite surprisingly, she has now returned with a new musical in collaboration with her granddaughter Gracie Hyland called House on Fire, which she performed in concert form at The Green Room 42.
The musical tells the story of a captain of industry (Michael McCorry Rose) who has no understanding of global warming and its destructive results (the theme that drew Cryer to tell the story in the first place), his spoiled but questioning wife (Cryer), and their troubled and restless teenage daughter, Sophie (Hyland). They all visit the same therapist (Tyley Ross) who also served as the narrator of the piece. Another patient of the glib shrink is Mother Earth, a dominatrix (Kenita Miller), who counts the Captain among her clients. When the teen runs away from home, she encounters a young person known as Two Spirits (also Hyland) and a singing California Condor (Gabriella Joy Rodriguez) who, after self-fertilizing herself (this is a strange fact that inspired some of the story), literally lays an egg on stage (insert obvious joke). The characters then fly off to Africa on the back of the giant bird to save the last two northern white female rhinoceroses (another fact).
Stark realism it isn’t. In so many ways, this seems like the political theater of the 1970s—loose-jointed plot, characters who are as much prototypes as individuals (shades of Cradle Will Rock), and music that sounds contemporary rather than like traditional music theater. That’s not to say there wasn’t much to enjoy; there was a good deal of humor and many flavorful numbers, both upbeat and soulful. Among the highlights were Cryer’s own aria, “Precious Days,” which truly exposed the soul of the woman. Katarina, the condor, had a passionate, soaring aria in “I Believe in Musicals,” and there was a great scene- and story-setting opening number, “Have I Got a Story,” led by the charismatic doctor. Some of the other 13 songs were a bit more generic and had less emotional impact. They and the book might have worked better in a fully staged production, given that the entire story seemed to lack a great deal of dramatic conflict; there was too much telling and too little showing.
What wasn’t lacking was talent on stage. Every one of the singers/actors delivered like stars. Miller rocked the house with her power and seductiveness; as a dominatrix she definitely dominated the room. Ross was seductive and dangerous in the tradition of such characters as the Engineer in Miss Saigon and the Emcee in Cabaret, while Hyland was honest and sincere in her portrayal of the two young and decent characters she embodied. Rose was fine as the pompous and clueless Captain, and Rodriguez possessed a truly beautiful voice. All of them were directed by DeMone Seraphin with an economical light touch that kept the program smoothly moving forward. There were also major contributions from music director/orchestrator/pianist/occasional actor Jody Shelton, along with drummer Joe Choroszewski, bassist Lee Nadal, and cellist Leigh Stuart.
The show isn’t ready for a full-scale production yet, mostly because the book needs to be more focused and the characters need to be enriched. But it is very special and might happily find its home in an off-Broadway house with its mixture of nostalgia, positive messages, and ecological support, especially if they can retain this superb cast.
