Jeremy Jordan goes deep in the dark musical

In the production of Lincoln Center theater of Floyd CollinsThe creators Tina Landau and Adam Guettel resuscitate their touches project, the strange musical, sometimes slow but above all beautiful as they designed for the first time at the time as a student of Yale, then gave it life in a production of short -term but legendary Broadway production in 1996. The new production, opening this evening to the Vivian Beaumont de Broadway, There is no doubt about the reason why those who saw him for the first time almost 30 years ago broadcast from his gospel.

With the often sublime score and words of Guettel who find themselves on terror, cynicism and, above all, eternal hope against the well -captured hope in the book of Landau, Floyd Collins Could haunt some of those who see him as surely as he has haunting it both in 1996.

Notice, however, that I do not say that it will haunt everyone Who sees it, and it is simply because this musical is not without defects, in particular an overly long and repetitive book which can challenge patience and a staging that disperses characters nearby and far on the space of Massive Beaumont. A musical story as intimate as Floyd Collins would almost certainly benefit from a staging – and a scene – which reflects the nature of the small gems of its equipment.

However, no one can challenge performance here, notably Jeremy Jordan, the popular Broadway singer from Knots And The Grand GatsbyHere giving the performance of his career. When ordering a voice which is called to do it a lot in musical, melodic and enchanting yodeling (then in Yodeling in a duet with his own voice of the cave) on the plaintive (“and she would have blue eyes”) and the affecting voice (the song of the enigma “,” How Glory “.

And, yes, there are songs and happy moments Floyd CollinsEven if a quick description of the show could suggest the opposite. You may want to stop reading here to avoid the big spoiler, but as the show is based on a well-known event in 1925 which inspired an even more known film (1951 Ace in the hole With Kirk Douglas), the end of the musical – Floyd dies – should really surprise anyone.

Jordan played Floyd Collins, a young man in 1925, the Kentucky who prefers by far to explore the many caves of the region than to work on the agricultural land “Harscrabble” of his father. (Collins was not alone – The area near Mammoth Cave in Kentucky experienced a completely craze in the 1920s while Spelunkers chubby deep caves like a Rick -Rick adventure: like Floyd dreams, find the right one, build steps, broadcast lights, add a concession stand and voila!

In the first 15 minutes of the musical, brilliantly staged and played in this production, Jordan appears alone on an entirely black set with large black and shredded cubes that get up for him to climb, then a large, large monolith he evolves, making his way through his different openings and, finally slippery.

Sing Jordan while exploring, showing us what is in the soul of Floyd Collins of American dream:

“There has never been another man here /
No Indians, no thrill seekers /
No crazy of Cavin idiots! /
Nobody, nothing until I found it /
God first showed me!

But he also sings this:

“There is a kind of fear /
You can’t get a photo /
It’s like a giant jaw, it calls me “

Soon, the giant jaw bites, and Floyd is trapped in a very narrow passage, rocks falling on his legs then his arms, weighing him.

Above the ground, family, friends and neighbors meet at the mouth of the cave where Floyd left behind his jacket and other articles. They initially take the news in Stride, because Floyd has already started in Jams and always manages to get rid of. But as a nightfall passes, then another, they realize that this time is different. Floyd, with his representative Jordan confined to an inclined board during most of the rest of the musical, is not to come.

While his brother Homer Collins (Jason Gotay) can only at the beginning that his body only hear his brother, a journalist from Cub Newspaper newly on the scene named Skeets Miller – the nickname short for Mosquito, because of its slight construction – is soon through tight places and in love. Miller (Taylor Trensch) is able to deliver food and water (Floyd’s hands are released, but not his legs) and begins a series of interviews with the trapped man to relay his fate in the world.

And the world listens to. Suddenly (as in the real event and the following film), the sleeping sand cave in the county of Barren, Kentucky, becomes a tourist attraction, but not for the reasons that Floyd had envisaged. People come not to explore the cave, but to watch and wait for a rescue, or perhaps a different result.

The first act of Floyd Collins Concentrates mainly on the Collins family: Floyd, of course, and brother Homer, Father Lee (Marc Kudisch), the mother-in-law Jane (Jessica Molaskey) and the sister Nellie (Lizzy McCalpine), a sensitive soul of Tennessee Williams who has just been released from a kind of mental asylum. She and Floyd had a permanent, almost telepathic link.

Act II changes the mood of the musical as the frame becomes that of the carnival grotesqueries. The whole, designed by the collective DOTS, now offers carnival lights, fireworks, a game or two, even this concession stand that Floyd had planned. Of course, now the tourist site has a morbid gloom. The opening number after intermission is “so remarkable” sung by a trio of journalists, in black trenchs and fedoras, harmonizing as if they could anticipate the Andrews sisters. The Vaudeville style number (Jon Rua designed the charming dance sequences) has a cheerfully macabre tone, even if it arouses a musical that must be stirred.

The intrigue from there goes where it goes, with rescue attempts made and lost, blame for all and sorrow for some. There is a nice number called “the dream” in which the Floyd Coupé gets up and walks to find his family, friends and even the journalist’s skeet, with whom he developed a sweet relationship that is open to interpretation, all dressed in whites with the exception of dusty costumes and covered with mud (Anita Yavich has done the costumes of the time.

Landau gathered a beautiful distribution to give life to this sad story, Jordan leading the charge. Gotay, as a agitated brother who, in his own way, is as trapped as Floyd, but not by rocks but by the expectations of a father, corresponds to the voice of Jordan at each stage of the path. Kudisch and Molaskey are very affected while the distraught parents pushed their limits, and Sean Allan Krill as a big shot engineer outside the city coming to save the day gives a insightful performance which begins with pride, moves with a real attachment and ends with, finally, a defeat.

Two performances also note: Trensch as a journalist for Cub Skeets and McAlpine as the alternately optimistic and broken sister Nellie. Trensch expands the journalist with lightnings of fear, ambition, duty and, ultimately, a love for Floyd that Landau lets very subtly understanding something close. Each choice that Landau makes with Trensch and Mcalpine is the right one.

McCalpine, who has built a very successful career as an independent Pop singer -songwriter, made an impressive start of Broadway here, singing the infused number of Bluegrass “Lucky” – one of the most beautiful songs – in a range of crystalline mid -range which refers to the music of the roots of the Appalachians while holding firm on the stage of the theater.

Guettel’s music, overall, is not always easy to listen to. He is dreamy and unconventional – missing of melody is generally the first complaint – but here the score is imbued with elements of country, blues and mountain music, which gives him a feeling of homose. Bruce Coughlin’s orchestrations are superb.

However, partition and production itself can and do so, sometimes drag, in particular towards the end, when, perhaps with a little guilt, some public members could wish for a rapid advance in destiny. Do not compare our endurance test to that of poor ol ‘floyd, but always, a less strict musical reetition, less staging could send the estimable Floyd Collins Soak.

Title: Floyd Collins
Place: The Vivian Beaumont theater from Broadway to Lincoln Center
Direction, book, additional words: Tina Landau
Music and words of: Adam Guettel
Casting: Jeremy Jordan, Jason Gotay, Sean Allan Krill, Marc Kudisch, Lizzy McAlpine, Wade McCollum, Jessica Molaskey, Taylor Trensch, Cole Vaughan, Clyde Voce, and Kevin Bernard, Dwayne Cooper, Jeremy Davis, Charlie Franklin, Kristen Hahn, Kevyn Morrow, Zak Resnick, Justin Showell and Colin Trudell.
Operating time: 2 hours 35 min (with a intermission)