Fleet Week

The reviews are in… and they’re really good! We got at least two out-n-out RAVES!

Here’s my favorite:

Rhys Southan, bless ‘im, raves in the New York Sun:

The Biggest Crowd-Pleaser of the Festival
New York International Fringe Festival
BY RHYS SOUTHAN

August 23, 2005

“Fleet Week: The Musical” might be the biggest crowd-pleaser at this year’s Fringe.

This campy production bills itself “a gay salute to the patriotic musicals of yesteryear,” so it’s no surprise that “Fleet Week” has a wonderfully jazzy score, about as many “seaman” puns as an audience can stand, and a silly plot in which the Statue of Liberty falls in love and Martiniquean terrorists attack New York. What you might not guess is that it’s also sweet, old-fashioned, and fun for straight people.

“Fleet Week” follows the lives of four sexually desperate (and confused) Coast Guard sailors on shore leave. They’d resigned themselves to the necessity of homosexuality while on the lonely seas, but what if their chummy songs and seductive jigs fail to woo the opposite sex on shore? Is it back to their old ways? Was it really just necessity that brought them together in the first place? As one song goes, “You’re only queer at the pier - or so all the sailors say.”

As “Fleet Week” opens, the gay story elements are so subtle that it seems the musical might hark back to the old days, when gay themes were merely a subtext for a knowing audience. But this is the sort of musical where the good guys overhear a dastardly plot, then put their hands to their ears while looking back and forth and up and down with shocked expressions. Only a few lines miss their mark, however, and the dialogue ranges from clever to forgivably pandering - one character calls the Statue of Liberty “You magnificent slut!”

A couple of subplots are amusing enough, even if they feel a little tacked-on. A romance between the Statue and the captain of the ship - who is rarely seen with his mates, alienating the story from the rest of the musical - provides the main straight love story. Anyone who has fallen in love in his golden years, or juggled his career with his relationship to a statue, will relate.

A far weaker story line involves terrorists from Martinique who have teamed up with a homophobic redneck named Tex to blow up the Statue. The terrorists’ French accents are incomprehensible, and their motivation isn’t clear until the end; it doesn’t really matter, though, because neither the writer nor the characters, who continue obsessing about their love problems while their lives are on the line, care much about what the terrorists are up to.

At least “Fleet Week” deftly avoids September 11 overtones. This is first plot relating to blasting a New York landmark I’ve seen in a comedy since the day irony died.

One of the best songs, “Sort of at Sea,” is sung by two men reasoning that the bathhouse they’re in resembles the salty air of the lonely ship, and makes it okay for them to stay together. Homophobes get their comeuppance when Tex, who blames homosexuality on the Statue of Liberty, has to suffer a gay kiss on the mouth and an untimely death. Hilariously, the play lets him redeem himself just before he dies.

“Fleet Week” succeeds in part because it refuses to trap itself with inside jokes directed solely at a gay audience. It is the sort of musical we don’t see much of anymore, unhindered by depth and darkness. Its has a modest innocence that it never subverts, even with bathhouse scenes and a save-the-day gay marriage.

Here are the links to other reviews:

Phoebe Hoban in the Times thinks that ALL 20 songs are well-written and that the cast (especially Melissa) can really belt ‘em. What’s more, she really likes Rob and Bruce, and writes that the “humorous tastelessness is the selling point of this show”. She calls it “‘On the Town’ meets ‘Queer as Folk’.”

Andy Probst, in Backstage, makes us all giddy when he writes that we’re a “giddy musical” with promise. He has especially nice things to say about Eric, Paulo, Bryon and Brian:

A “giddy musical . . . [with] a richly diverse score by Jordana Williams (lyrics) and Sean Williams (music)”

“Wonderful caricatures by Byron St. Cyr and Brian Karim”

“Director Eric Pliner’s staging keeps the show sailing swiftly, aided by Paulo Seixas’ effective and economical use of cutout set pieces . . .”

We’re a Voice Choice or whatever they call it when they like you and put you in the NYC Guide:

“Last year’s Fleet Week—that annual occasion during which sailors in tight white outfits invade our fair isle—featured navy submarine displays, ship parades, and a fleet blessing. It did not, however, include homoerotic dance numbers and singing lady cops. Leave that to this 20-song extravaganza, courtesy Sean Williams, Mac Rogers, and Jordana Williams”

Jena Tesse Fox, in BroadwayWorld.com saith, “We’re Not On the Town Any More“:

“Whether you prefer Urinetown or On The Town, Fleet Week is just post-modern enough to mildly shock, and retro enough to evoke the most cheesy of old musicals. For all the graphic sex talk, this is, ultimately, a love story, complete with weddings at the end. And really, can a musical comedy get more classic than that?”

“The sassy new musical Fleet Week, premiering at the Fringe, takes the basic premise of the Comden and Green classic [On the Town] and kicks it into the 21st century.”

- “inspired, gleeful, giddy silliness, the kind that, despite all logic, brings an idiotic grin to your face and a catchy song to your heart.”
- “Sean Williams, Jordana Williams, and Mac Rogers have created a thoroughly enjoyable loving send-up of classic musicals and modern politics.”
- “[FLEET WEEK] gives the delightful Broadway vet Melissa Hart a chance to sing a vampy torch song, which is always welcome . . . The cast performs with enough energy and joy to keep the Titanic afloat . . . Said cast is led by the inimitable and indomitable Rob Maitner as the ship’s sweetly fey chaplain . . . Micah Bucey plays the innocent Seaman Stayn (say it out loud, or better yet, don’t) with genuine aw-shucks charm, making Stayn’s naive farm-boy routine believable and sympathetic. Brian M. Golub and Christopher Guilmet have great chemistry as Seamen Sachs and Ravioli, and Laura Perloe is winsome and adorable as the conflicted Seaman Swallows . . . Byron St. Cyr, Brian Karim, and Bruce Sabath harmonize well and have great comic timing . . . And Marnie Klar and Renee Delio are wonderful chameleons as (more or less) the entire population of New York.”
- “Mac Rogers’ book is snappy and silly, reveling in its absurdities but still finding moments of poignancy to keep the show from floating completely away . . . Sean Williams’ music is appropriately light, and with enough variety to keep the songs interesting. First-time lyricist Jordana Williams makes a very nice debut . . . Eric Pliner’s direction . . . keeps the pace at an appropriate slapstick speed . . . and Paulo Seixas’ set is simple and versatile, easily conjuring a city’s worth of locales.”

The Seigels, writing for Theatermania have very nice things to say, too!

“…its strongest element is its score by Sean Williams, Jordana Williams, and Mac Rogers — particularly, its sparkling lyrics.”

“Rob Maitner, who plays [the] Chaplain, gives a standout musical comedy performance”

New York Magazine loves the Fleet Week-ers:

“An exceptional cast . . . Frequently delightful and occasionally outstanding!”

“Tony nominee Melissa Hart (Georgy), who delivers the show-stopper “Libby’s Torch Song,” is relentlessly entertaining”

“Byron St. Cyr, as the flamboyant bomber who would turn America into “the United States of Martinique” is superb.”

“Just as good and just as gay, Rob Maitner, a Fringe veteran, turns his potentially clichéd role as an effeminate chaplain into a true original, just as he did as with Mr. McQueen in the 1999 breakthrough Fringe production of Urinetown.”