'Nice Life' is a nice musical
Have a Nice Life, Nice People Theatre's current production, is a musical romp through a 90-minute group therapy session. If this sounds like some sort of exquisite new method of torture, perhaps you ought to ask yourself why, and how you can change your negative thinking patterns. Maybe you should come in and join the circle.
Have a Nice Life
, Nice People Theatre's current production, is a musical romp through a 90-minute group therapy session. If this sounds like some sort of exquisite new method of torture, perhaps you ought to ask yourself why, and how you can change your negative thinking patterns. Maybe you should come in and join the circle.
Everything about
Have a Nice Life
feels comfortable and familiar, which, considering the circumstances, may be due to some transference. Conor Mitchell's lyrics and Matthew Hurt's book combine with Bill Felty's affectionate direction and Nancy Berman Kantra's homage-filled choreography to blend 2008 with 1978. The play is a veritable
Chorus Line
of psychic complaint, with nods to Neil Simon and Bob Fosse.
All group members get their moment to sing in the spotlight, whether they cluelessly yearn for "old-fashioned romance" - you know, "just like it was for that AIDS guy and Doris Day" - or share the myriad pleasures of sending stalker-ish hate mail to a one-night stand. Noah Mazaika's Patrick must be the least effective therapist ever to slip through grad school, but of course, if he did his job well, we wouldn't have much of a musical, and that would be a shame.
The ensemble is remarkably well-rounded, and this level of skill from a new company on a tiny stage like Mum Puppettheatre's bodes well for both the city's talent pool and its audience. Miriam White is particularly versatile as beleaguered Amy, a drop-in guest who finds herself on the receiving end of the group's collective angst, but the cast is almost equally praiseworthy.
Ironically, the script never digs too deeply into its characters' psyches (platitudes like "You have to fall down before you can get back up again" are about as close as they come to uncovering a greater truth), and the music is conventional to the point of retro-cliche, but so what?
Have a Nice Life
is at its heart a bit of fluff, and given that this is, after all, Nice People Theatre, why not go for a nice play with a soft heart? Mitchell and Hurt accomplish exactly what they set out to: They celebrate ordinary folks' vulnerabilities and offer some hope to the rest of us.
It might not be a cure, but it's a start.
Have a Nice Life
Through March 23 at Mum Puppettheatre, 115 Arch St., Philadelphia. Tickets: $18-$20. Information: 215-300-9460 or
» READ MORE: www.NicePeopleTheatre.org
.