BAAY achieves low earth orbit
by Christopher Key
Steve Barnes’ mind doesn’t operate the way most of ours’ do. For that, we should be forever grateful
because he takes us to places we would not otherwise go. One of the resident geniuses at Bellingham
Arts Academy for Youth, Barnes is among the reasons BAAY has been wildly
successful at turning out students whose theatrical and musical talents never
fail to exceed expectations. Even when
those expectations have become ridiculously high over the years. I know this because I keep casting BAAY
graduates in my own shows.
Barnes’ fertile imagination has created another original
musical called The Skylark and it is
both stirring and touching. I’m not sure
how he does this. If I knew, I’d be
writing musicals instead of reviews. His
work is always otherworldly, for lack of a better description. In The
Skylark, he creates a utopian society that has rejected science in favor of
agrarian stability. In doing so, he
gives “grounded” a whole new meaning.
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| Photo credit - Christopher Key |
This society is led by an Earth Mother type whose hippie
consciousness conceals an incipient thought-control tyrant. Kenzie Knapp portrays this character with an
authenticity that any veteran of the 1960s will recognize immediately.
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| Photo credit - Christopher Key |
Despite all her efforts, her son, Lamarque, is looking up
instead of down. He sees the stars and
wants to know the wherefore and the why. John Malquist plays him with an ethereal
innocence and idealism that will wrench your heart. It’s tempting to think of this character as
Barnes’ alter ego, but I think Professor Granular is a better fit.
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| Photo credit - Christopher Key |
The good professor is the very image of the mad scientist
whose experiments may blow up and kill lots of people on occasion, but who
doesn’t let that slow him down. Henry
Winslow perfectly captures that mad gleam in the eye that you can see in
portraits of Tesla, Einstein, and Feynman.
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| Photo credit - Christopher Key |
Carmen Souza plays the Professor’s daughter with the genuine
intensity of a true believer. She doesn’t
speak to her schoolmates because they live in different worlds and there is no
basis for communication. The good hippie
kids in her class torment her unmercifully, but she finds a soul-mate in
Lamarque.
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| Photo credit - Christopher Key |
Barnes has a wonderfully twisted sense of humor and it gets
thoroughly unleashed in the character of Copernicus, an android created by the
Professor. Anya Seegers is simply brilliant
in the role of the humanoid who dreams of nothing more than being able to taste
pie. Her two sistoids are played equally
well by Melissa Burke-Manwaring and Elsie Dank.
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| Photo credit - Christopher Key |
Zoë Taylor doesn’t get much stage time as schoolteacher Miss
Jessup. But she deserves enormous credit
for creating the evocative choreography.
Throughout the play, I kept being reminded of the late David
Bowie, both because of the subject matter and because Barnes’ music and lyrics
are worthy of that comparison. You’ll
find it hard to believe that young actors and singers can perform at this
level, but that’s BAAY in a nutshell.
Ashley Suloway-Baker delivers a dazzling lighting design,
Walt Souza is responsible for the nifty set design and Costume Goddess Genny
Cohn does her usual amazing thing.
There are eight performances of this very contemporary
musical running from March 10 – 20. For
precise times and ticketing information, see the BAAY website.
Steve Barnes is an apparently incurable optimist and The Skylark is thoroughly contagious. Catch it.
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