Photo Credit: Troy Freund
Subversive musical theater resonates through Plymouth Church as Boulevard Theatre presents a concert reading of Jerry Herman’s Dear World. Liz Norton is inspiringly vibrant as a woman living in the basement of a bistro in Paris. Her elegantly bent and beautifully mutated optimistic perception of the world is challenged when a group of investors plot to blow-up the bistro in hopes of taking over the property, which they suspect may rest on land containing quite a bit of oil.
The music mingles amid the humble pews and echoes through cozily cavernous church space. There is no artificial amplification needed. A spectrum of passion radiates from the actors. With no set, the dramatic action of the play takes place around the corners of imagination as actors pulsate with emotion. Norton’s voice is quite powerful as a central emotional anchor of a dizzily surreal story of love against greed. The central romantic narrative features a recovering corporate underling (played by Joseph Gallo) falling for an enchantingly sweet girl (Julianne Frey) who works at the bistro.
Norton’s tireless positivity as a hero is contrasted with the corporate villainy of the men in charge of turning Paris into an industrial wasteland. It’s not one of Jerry Herman’s better-known works, but there are some brilliant distillations of modern politics shining out of the starkly amplified surrealism of the story. Songs like “Just a Little Bit More” and “Have a Little Pity on the Rich” are sparklingly witty satires on greed that seem tragically appropriate in an era of Scott Walker, Paul Ryan and the current political climate in Washington, D.C.
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Through Nov. 26 at Plymouth Church, 2717 E. Hampshire St. For tickets, call 414-744-5757 or visit boulevardtheatre.com.
