reviews for Loveless!
Nicole Colbert Sep 09, 2017
Inspired by Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost, Boomerang Theatre Company’s Loveless Texas is a toe-tapping musical comedy set during the early years of the Great Depression. Although many of the characters hold the same names as in the Shakespeare play, the story begins with a twist: Berowne Loveless Navarre (the hugely talented Joe Joseph) and his buddies—Duke Dumaine (Colin Barkell) and Bubba Longaville (Brett Benowitz)—are playboys who travel from New York to Paris. Along the way they do all the things that upstanding young men shouldn’t bedoing: chase women, drink liquor and spend the Navarre family money.
Will they ever grow up and settle down? This question irks King Navarre (the soulful Darren Ritchie), who has been writing checks left and right to help keep Berowne and his friends out of trouble. Their gallivanting is not only bad for the family reputation, but in America it’s Prohibition, and the boys can get into a heap of trouble for their wild behavior. And they do.
Beneath all this, director Cailin Heffernan, who also wrote the libretto, expertly teases out a tale of two brothers. King and Berowne couldn’t be more different: King is hard-working, and spends hours at his desk dealing with the family business. Berowne enjoys his footloose life, but after he and his buddies are arrested in Paris, they must come home. King offers them all jobs that come with conditions: no liquor and no women for three years. Berowne flatly refuses, but the others jump at the chance because the economy is terrible and they can’t find jobs in spite of being young and educated. Times are tough.
The standoff between Berowne and King hardens when Berowne decides not to honor the sale of a piece of land agreed upon in a handshake he had with LaReine Beausoleil’s (Trisha Jeffrey) father. King’s men have discovered oil on the land that would make them rich—or at least richer than they are. Now it’s greed vs. honor, which drives a deeper wedge between the two.
Henry Aronson’s country-western style music and lyrics do justice to the musical theater form. The songs heighten the mood of each scene, whether they be funny, pensive, or playful. The show features a live band which adds a wonderful touch to the toe-tapping, foot-stomping, make-you-get-up-and-dance hoedown that the show becomes at times. The cast are all exceptionally talented singers, but Amanda Lea LaVergne (Rosaline) and Ritchie (King) stand out, and their twangy singing is extra-special.
True to a Shakespearean comedy, love, like a spell, takes hold of each character, even those you’d least expect. It makes everyone happier and kinder, and even acts to soften the reserve between Berowne and King. But the two brothers are especially resistant to it. King has been alone, holding down the family business and being his brother’s keeper. He sings: “In the dead of night, when sleep is fleeting, I feel my confidence retreating (...) you’ve been won by a woman’s wooing.” As each one gives in to love, the mood, as does the music, turns celebratory, and uplifting. A perfect note to end the night on.
“Loveless, Texas” is Light and Lovable Fun by Ryan Leeds - Sep 20, 2017
Henry Aronson doesn’t yet have the same theatrical name recognition as composers Jason Robert Brown, Stephen Sondheim, or Tom Kitt. “Yet” is the operative word here since Aronson’s wholly original score for a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost is a much needed and welcome addition to the contemporary musical theater genre.
Boomerang Theatre Company’s Loveless, Texas, is a fluffy and fun spin on the Bard’s tale about a ramblin’ playboy, Berowne Loveless Navarre (Joe Joseph) and his merry misfit of men who swear a vow of chastity for...gulp...three years!
In addition, they aren’t allowed to drink or cavort. The rules are initiated by Berowne’s brother, King Ferdinand (Darren Ritchie) who offers them jobs as ranch hands if they obey his command.
If they adhered to his directives, it would be an awfully dull story and fortunately, they don’t. True to form in a Shakespearean comedy, identities are mismatched, frolic ensues, and love is found.
Cailín Heffernan’s book keeps the action movin’ along at a brisk clip. Heffernan, who also directed, seems to mesh nicely with Aronson’s style. At 2 hrs and 40 minutes however, the story could use a small bit of trimming.
Pleasant, but slow ballads tend to bog down the action near the end.
Still, this cast is superb and delivers good ‘ole fashioned country twang with energy and authenticity. Cheryl McCarron’s depression era costumes are smartly designed and appropriate and Evan Hill has created a viable Western town within the Sheen Center’s sleek and transformable theater space.
Erin Kahn Sep 11, 2017
As West Side Story and The Lion King demonstrate, Shakespeare-inspired musicals can work wonderfully -- but only when done right. Happily, Boomerang Theatre Company's Loveless Texas, a new musical by Henry Aronson and Cailin Heffernan, gets it exactly right. Inspired by Shakespeare's romantic comedy Love's Labour's Lost, this musical set in Depression-era Texas and Louisiana uses Shakespeare as a springboard for its energizing, heartwarming story about family, love, and, of course, Texas.
Berowne Loveless Navarre and his two friends are bent on chasing fun (which usually means girls, gambling, and booze) from one end of the globe to the other. That is, until Berowne's older and more responsible brother calls the three young men home to his Texas ranch and offers them respectable jobs. The catch is that if they want to work for King Navarre, the three young men have to sign an agreement stating that for three years they won't gamble, drink, or engage in any interactions with the fairer sex. It seems impossible, but the three young men are desperate, so they sign King's agreement.
Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) a household of young and very attractive women live in close proximity to King's ranch, and when a business deal brings the two households into even closer proximity, it seems like the contract Berowne and his friends have signed can't hold up for long. In fact, even King Navarre himself might not be able to hold his resolution when faced with the undeniable charm of his pretty young neighbor LaReine Beausoleil.
A lively, strong-voiced cast performs to a masterful script and set of knock-out songs penned in an eclectic mashup of bluegrass, Cajun, cowboy, and swing. As Berowne Navarre, Joe Joseph gives a heart-capturing performance as alternately fun-loving playboy, dedicated brother, and forlorn romantic. As his love-interest Rosaline Aucoin, Amanda Lea LaVergne is a perfect match: fiery, with a piercingly strong voice.
Also noteworthy is Darren Ritchie, who turns out a decidedly empathetic performance as King Navarre. His soliloquy song "Words/Git it Down" is, in my opinion, one of the highlights of the show. Another highlight -- simply because it's so much fun -- is Berowne's corny cowboy number "If Ladies Was Friendly (Like Horses)" in which he impersonates a chauvinistic, backwoods cowboy to the girls (who are by no means fooled). And the girls' lively number "I'll Chase Him Till He Catches Me" is another fun one. Nearly every song in this musical is an exciting tour de force of music, lyrics, and vocal performance. (And let's not forget the band.)
Perhaps its most remarkable achievement is that, without following religiously the plot of Love's Labour's Lost, Loveless Texas successfully pulls off a modernized American tale that reads like a perfect Shakespearean romance - if Shakespeare had written a romantic comedy set in 1930s Texas. Aronson and Heffernan have created a joyous, feel-good musical that gallops along like a Texas cowboy at a thrilling, exuberant pace. As Berowne sings in the opening number and again in the exhilarating finale, "This party will never end."
Victor Gluck, Sep 17, 2017
Shakespeare’s plays have been a rich source for American musicals, successes like The Boys From Syracuse, Kiss Me Kate, and West Side Story, and flops like Oh Brother!, Babes In the Woods and Rockabye Hamlet. His early comedy, Love’s Labors Lost has been musicalized several times: a 1973 opera had a libretto by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman to music by Nicolas Nabokov; in 2000, director Kenneth Branagh released a film reset in 1939 to songs by Berlin, Gershwin, Kern and Cole Porter, and in the summer of 2013, Shakespeare In the Park presented a new musical to the story by composer Michael Friedman and director Alex Timbers which turned the tale into a college romp
Now as Loveless Texas by Henry Aronson (music and lyrics) and Cailín Heffernan (libretto and direction) it has become a delightful country-western musical set in the Lone Star State during the Great Depression. Faithful to the original story, it has a high-powered cast made up mainly of Broadway and National Tour veterans and contains a foot-tapping score. Its only flaw is that at two hours and 40 minutes, it is overly long considering not a lot happens. This might be caused by the fact that the entertaining songs do not forward the plot or that the unit set is basically used as the same stage picture all evening. Nevertheless, this Off Broadway premiere presented by Boomerang Theatre Company is a vastly enjoyable musical entertainment and should have legs to future productions.
Although the plot has been reset in Loveless, Texas and New Orleans, Louisiana, circa 1929, it is an improvement over the original story as a romantic comedy: Shakespeare’s version ends with a death and four pairs of lovers departing and agreeing to meet in a year’s time. Loveless, Texas puts the funeral at the end of the first act, and brings all four couples, plus two more, together by the final curtain, which is much more satisfying. (No spoiler this as it is obvious what will happen – just not so obvious how they will get there.)
Divorced and lonely King Loveless Ferdinand Navarre is a cattle baron and oil prospector on his ranch in Loveless, Texas. Troubled by his younger brother Berowne’s profligate ways with his frat buddies, Boyet Duke Dumaine and Kyle Bubba Longaville, since they finished college, he is able to call the shots when he has them bailed them out of prison in Paris after a shocking affair and brought home. Neither Duke, trained as an accountant, nor Bubba, a licensed lawyer, can find jobs due to the Depression, while Berowne expects to continue as a high living playboy on his trust fund. Threatening to cut off Berowne’s funds, he makes the three buddies a deal: he will give them all jobs if they agree to no drinking, swearing, gambling or womanizing for three years. Almost immediately, they are confronted by Gwen Soileau, business manager for the Cajun businessman LeRoi Beausoleil, the father of LaReine (pronounced Larraine), over a previous hand shake deal to sell an oil claim, which has since turned into a major strike that King no longer wants to sell.
The other problem is that LaReine has traveled to Texas with her three sorority sisters, Rosaline Aucoin, Kathy Bridge and Maria Broussard who are sweet on Berowne, Duke and Bubba, who they have met before, and when King becomes sweet on LaReine, there is trouble over the pact. Add in Pastor Joe Don Armado, an itinerant preacher who goes to work for King, Jacquenetta, Duke’s highly sexed younger sister living with her Aunt Gwen, and Randy Costard, King’s assistant, a former Texas A&M football star, and you have the making of a complex romantic sex comedy. Let the games begin.
Though the possibly too rich score includes Texas swing, bluegrass, blues, Cajun waltz, the two-step, and cowboy yodels, the dominant style is country-western, often suggesting classic songs of Woody Guthrie. With the savvy six person band led by the composer, the score is given a glorious reading. Among the rollicking and clever songs are the three college buddies in their salad days in “This Party Will Never End,” and “If Ladies Were Friendly (Like Horses).” The sorority sisters have their say in “I’ll Catch Him Till He Catches Me.” All the men get in on “Thank You Kindly, No” which eventually leads to their pact of abstinence. The first act ends with the fast-paced “Draw the Line” sung by two ardent but angry couples, King and LaReine, and Berowne and Rosaline. Randy and Joe Don raise the roof in “This Time,” while King and Berowne have a moving duet in “Home to Your Own.” Berowne and Rosaline have the final say in the powerful, “You Can’t Rob A Man Who Has Nothin’.”
Heffernan solves the problem of the French characters in the original play by making them Louisiana Cajuns and Cajun is amply sprinkled throughout the dialogue. Plot points that are not made entirely clear include the fact that King and Berowne’s parents died in an oil rig explosion, and the guys and girls have been friends since their college days. The fact that King’s former wife has left him is used to explain his seriousness and celibacy. While some of the characters are less well drawn than others, the talented, accomplished cast gives all of them colorful personalities, making the couples very distinct.
The entire cast has impressive singing voice and makes the most of all of their musical numbers. As Berowne, the most partying of them all, Joe Joseph is a regular Texas ol’ boy who finally sees the light, and wraps his powerful tenor around his songs. As his more mature and responsible brother, Darren Ritchie is a strong presence as the sober King who has put love on a back burner while he got on with the business of running the ranch. John Herrera (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, In the Heights, 1776, Evita,) brings authority and his powerful baritone to the traveling preacher Joe Don Armado. With his athletic physique Colin Barkell as the fun-loving Duke Dumaine makes a clear contrast with Brett Benowitz’s Bubba Longaville clad in glasses, characters who in Shakespeare are often mistaken for each other.
Amanda Lea LaVergne is a feisty Rosaline, giving as good as she gets, suggesting she will make an excellent Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing or an adaptation someday. Chase Kamata is a fiery vixen as Jacquetta Dumaine, while Trisha Jeffrey has a lovely presence as the refined, clear-headed and self-possessed LaReine. Through they aren’t given a great deal to do as the other two sorority sisters, Annette Navarro makes Kathy more of a good-time girl bewitched by Duke’s good looks, while Bligh Voth’s Maria is a more serious minded young woman liking Bubba for his humor. As Gwen, business manager to the Beausoleil family, Kimberly JaJuan brings a cool presence to a woman holding her own in a man’s game.
Evan Hill’s serviceable unit set is enhanced by David J. Palmer’s slide projections which make the individual locations more distinct. The costumes by Cheryl McCarron are faithful to the time and period, though Rosaline and Maria’s dresses are a bit too similar in some scenes to keep them apart. Along with the slide projections, Michael O’Connor’s lighting adds atmosphere to the different locales and times of day. Although Loveless Texas can use some tightening, even in its present form it is a hugely engaging and entertaining romantic musical comedy which has more going for it than many recent stage shows.