Good Art Need Not End Badly

There are a few things about the theater nowadays that bug me: a wasted theater ticket, the resulting empty seat, people who arrive in jeans, t-shirts and new balance sneakers, cell phones that ring during the show, people talking like they’re at a basketball game instead of a show. But of all these things, nothing truly upsets me more than a fantastic piece of theater closing far too soon.

This past Thursday, my brother was super awesome and grabbed me an extra student rush seat to Lysistrata Jones. This show should NOT be closing.

I’m having terrible deja vu from a year ago when The Scottsboro Boys closed. At the very least, I understood the closing of The Scottsboro Boys. While it was a brilliant and touching show, pumped with talent that ripped up the stage, many argue that the production didn’t have wide enough audience appeal.

The same cannot be said for Lysistrata Jones.

Cleverly written by Douglas Carter Beane, the book of Lysistrata Jones loosely follows Aristophanes’ classic play about the woman who stopped the Peloponnesian War by persuading the wives and lovers of the soldiers to withhold sex until the men agree to halt the fighting. (For those of you who didn’t know that brief synopsis of the story of Lysistrata, consider yourself educated. You should know this.)

In Lysistrata Jones, transfer student Lysistrata Jones convinces her girls to “give up giving it up” until their basketball-playing boyfriends win a game. Now it’s not their skills that have prevented a W for the past 33 years, it’s their sheer lack of trying. Their approach to life is “whatever.” And while this cheesy-sounding plot sounds like it could be just whatever, it carries its weight in cultural relevance, heart and a provocative message.

Lyssie J (played by the ridiculously talented Patti Murin) wants to feel inspired. She wants to feel passion. She is sick of people in her life giving up. And therein lies the brilliance of the show. While it just seems like a stupid basketball record, Lysistrata Jones proves that there are no small issues. Murin infuses her Lyssie J with a perky relentlessness and sincerity that proves laziness in one discipline translates to laziness in life.

Yet, DCB delivers this substance amidst spot-on jokes about iPhones, Kim Jung Il, and our tech-obsessive culture. He even inserts a smattering of intellectual humor (the basketball team happens to be the Athens University Spartans) mounted on the poppy background of Lewis Flinn’s catchy songs.

The cast, a slew of Broadway ingenues just making their break, execute every moment with explosive energy. Dan Knechtges choreography is a gratifying mix of hard-hitting cheer moves and classic musical theater choreo. Finally, a new Broadway show with fresh, peppy dance numbers!

And thanks to Knechtges direction, each actor creates a clearly defined character that feels more like a person you went to college with than an empty caricature more often found on the stages of late. Jason Tam captures your heart with the nerdy sensitivity of his character Xander and his sinewy tenor. LaQuet Sharnell brings just the right amount of sass before she blows the roof off the house with her insane belt in act two’s “Don’t Judge a Book.”

From Kat Nejat’s (Cleonice) comedic timing, to Alexander Aguilar’s (‘Uardo) hard-hitting moves to Liz Mikel’s (Hetaira) dominating presence, the whole cast makes you say “Wow.”

The show is relatable. It’s silly and smart all in one package. It’s fun and sexy and the perfect amount of shocking.

I wanted this show to be the new Spring Awakening. Not in the way of another dark show about teen angst, but in the way of a shocking surprise hit of a musical that makes stars out of their newbie-ish actors (see: Lea Michele, John Gallagher Jr., Jonathan Groff). Sadly, as it has already closed, that is not to be.

This is only because not enough people were going out to see it. So get your butt to the theater! Go see a show whose name you can’t pronounce! Climb out of your box and go see worthwhile art! But please, please, don’t upset me and let another fabulous new show with incredible potential close long before it should.