Review: New Adam Guettel Musical "Millions" Premieres in Atlanta

Carla R. Stewart and Keenan Barrett. All production photos are by Greg Mooney

The show: “Millions,” a new musical receiving its world premiere at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta.

What makes it special?: It’s a new musical by composer Adam Guettel whose “Floyd Collins” is now having its Tony-nominated revival at Lincoln Center. He also wrote the exquisite “The Light in the Piazza” and the searing “Days of Wine and Roses.”

This new show is written by Bob Martin, who was very busy on Broadway this past season with “Elf,” “Smash” and “Boop." (He also received a Tony for his terrific “The Drowsy Chaperone.”) The last time a show of his was at the Alliance was the fabulous “The Prom,” which I reviewed for Variety prior to its Broadway run .

Martin’s script for the musical — it’s been in development for many years — is based on the tender and fanciful Young Adult novel and screenplay by Frank Cottel Boyce. The 2004 film was directed by Danny Boyle.

Those are some credits: And that’s just for starters. It’s also staged by Tony Award-winning director Bartlett Sher who also guided “The Light in the Piazza.” Also among the creative team are Michael Yeargan doing the sets; Catherine Zuber for costumes; lighting by Donald Holder; choreography by Dell Howlett; sound design by Justin Ellington; with projections by Ben Pearcy and Brad Peterson. Orchestrations are by Adam Guettel and Jamie Lawrence with the music direction by Kimberly Grisbty

Sounds like it’s Broadway bound: That’s the hope certainly. The Alliance show is produced by special arrangement with commercial producers Jeffrey Richards and Sonia Friedman, and with associate producer Cambra Overend, so one could see this as an out-of-town try-out. After all, the Alliance launched such shows to New York as “The Prom,” ”Tuck Everlasting,” “Maybe Happy Ending,” “Water for Elephants,” Twyla Tharp’s “Come Fly Away" (when it was called “Come Fly With Me”)” “The Color Purple,” among others.

Billy Harrington Tighe (arms outstretched) and ensemble

The cast also features significant theater names: Steven Pasquale, Shuler Hensley, Ruthie Ann Miles, Robert Stanton, Billy Harrigan Tighe, with Keenan Barrett, and Yair Keydar as the two boys who drive the story and pretty much are charged with carrying the show. That’s a tall order and one that misses the mark.

What’s the show about?: Two young brothers and their newly widowed father move to a housing development complex community near Albuquerque. Having huge debts because of his late wife’s death by cancer, father Ron (Pasqual) takes on the job and the woes of property manager at the complex , a job he hates in order to secure housing for his family because he is overwhelmed by the debt from his late wife’s illness.

In dealing with the death of his mother — who was Catholic — the youngest son Damien (Keenan Barrett, curiously long-haired) becomes fascinated by the lives (and gruesome deaths) of the saints. When these saints appear only to him Damien religiously inquires about his mother, imagining her in heaven. When a duffel bag of stolen currency destined to be shredded is stolen and tossed by the robber from a fast-moving train, it crashes into a kind of fort near the tracks that Damien has fashioned out of cardboard packing boxes.

Damien thinks the bag, which is filled with about $500,000, is a gift from God. He confides to his older brother Anthony (Yair Keydar), a boy who is obsessed with real estate and investment strategies. Anthony advises Damien to keep the loot secret as they devise a way to deal with the windfall. Damien sees it as a godly test of their goodness and he wants to give it away to the poor. Anthony has other ideas .

Sounds promising so far. But…er…talking to saints?: Actually, that’s part of the odd charm of the story; how a young boy — actually the whole family — deals with grief after its tragic loss in different ways. The saints have a humorously contemporary feel as they give counsel to Damien. In his magical thinking reality Damien is grappling with what it means to be a good person.

So what happens to the money?: Ah, that’s where the conflict starts: the choices the boys — and eventually the whole family — make about the money — with the robber (Hensley) fast on their heels.

OK, that’s the beginning of the plot. So how’s the show?: It’s a tricky assignment, transferring such a delicate piece of work to the musical stage into a coherent and seamless whole, and achieving a tone to match the original material.

Adapting the YA novel and film to the musical stage, Martin has made several effective choices. He relocates the story to the U.S. The source material was set in England on the eve of that country transferring its currency from the British Sterling to the Euro, with just a few days left for people to cash in the old money for the new before the former becomes worthless. That was a interesting dramatic device 20 years ago but really not necessary here, though that the-clock’s-a’ticking set-up gave that element of the story some urgency.

And…?: The show is definitely a work in progress, with potential. But some serious sleeve-rolling is needed.

What I liked about it most was Adam Guettel’s music. (I’m a great admirer of this work.) Here the music is his most accessible without losing his signature voice and style. But much of Guettel’s oeuvre — which eschews conventional songwriting tropes — is further appreciated on repeated listening, at least for me.

In “Millions,” Guettel has several songs that are tuneful from the first go-round with one number with a funky hook (“St. Who”) that is an ear-worm of a song (and nicely led by the strong-voiced Brad Raymond).

Another song (“Albuquerque Bethlehem”) is quirky and very funny as delivered by Billy Harrigan Tighe, who plays a security officer for the housing development.

The song that most landed most emotionally was “Childish Things,” delivered poignantly and passionately by the older brother Anthony (very well done by Keydar.) It dealt with this older brother’s own suppressed grief.

The show is really about how three members of the family — the father and his older and young sons — deal with their individual ways of mourning and starting life anew in an unfamiliar world. “Find Me” is Damien’s lovely song expressing his feeling of loss (which begins the show on a tentative note). Pascale’s song “In Loving You” on a single hearing didn't resonate as strongly though well sung, though his duet (“Lemon Sucker”) with Miles as a charity worker lands well. Leigh Ellen Jones as Maureen exquisitely sings the haunting “March Is a Windy Month.”

But other elements of the show — from its book to its casting to its staging — need further attention before it heads north. There are elements in the musical’s story that are clunky or simply don’t make sense. (Spoliers ahead in these paragraphs.)

— The Thief, played by Hensley, kills a railroad linesman for no logical reason and then oddly finagles his way into a Santa costume for a rather absurd eavesdropping scene. The set-up of the Thief’s arrival at the boys’ home, his actions and his plan to retrieve the money are also a bit baffling.

— In an effort to give the show some sense of musical scope and flow, there are kids on scooters in one scene and another scene has characters on roller skates, all to little effect. And a lineup of groovy Santas look like an attempt to add some choreographic element to the show, but all of these measures seem tacked on.

— Having a group of kids in song give a major plot narration is never a good idea. The thinness and pitch of the youthful voices and an unbalanced sound system made much of that expository scene indecipherable and probably left many in the audience without a clue of the information being presented.

— The scenes surrounding a school play of the Nativity and its scenery setup was a bit of a jumble but things like this — and my other qualms — can be eventually be worked out, no doubt.

But there’s something missing in the overall tone and look that right now isn’t there yet— and perhaps more challenging to pin down. That sense of magic realism conjured by Damien and his saints could provide a clue to a path forward. Guettel’s music and evocative lyrics certainly lends itself to that dreamy, other-worldliness that the story conjures. Martin injects a sly humor into the story, but his script spends much of its time dealing with the awkward plot points and transitions from scene to scene and rarely allows time for its characters to breathe and a singular theme to resonate, supported by song. So as the project moves on, here’s to those who keep faith, to those who work in hope and to those who charitably give this work time to find itself.

Who will like it?: Admirers of Guitell’s work. Fans of the book and film. Saints.

Who won’t? Those perhaps expecting a fully formed show at this point of its development or those expecting a more conventional musical. Sinners.

Thoughts in leaving the parking lot: A sense of natural innocence — and not actor-y innocence — is such a special quality to have in a young performer, especially one who is also asked to carry such a large part of a major show. To be effortlessly natural and guileless while still possessing the necessary stagecraft is rare indeed. Benjamin Pajak who played Winthrop in “The Music Man” and the title role in Encore’s “Oliver” several years ago comes to mind, but time quickly moves on and these young talents grow out of those roles and hopefully onto other age appropriate ones.