When a monster blizzard and a crash on the highway strand two very different groups of travelers for three days at an historic Black-owned inn on the brink of closure in upstate New York, a lot of baggage gets unpacked in the new musical comedy Welcome to The Big Dipper, making its Off-Broadway debut in a limited engagement with the York Theatre Company at the Theatre at St. Jean’s. Written by Catherine Filloux (book), John Daggett (book and lyrics), and Jimmy Roberts (music and lyrics), and based on Filloux’s 2004 play All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go, the conflicts among the characters and within themselves, the connections they make, and the issues they resolve come too quickly, require a suspension of disbelief, and too often miss the mark on the dated humor in a forced and erratic attempt to deliver the serious themes of diversity, inclusion, acceptance, and taking ownership and pride in who you are.
Under the uneven writing of Filloux and direction of DeMone Seraphin, a cast of ten, some playing multiple minor roles, appear as The Sirens of Syracuse cross-dressers on route to a competition, members of a Pennsylvania Amish community returning home from a wedding in Canada, a cabaret singer and her college-bound son who own the Big Dipper Inn, which has been in their family for decades, their longtime friend and resident who values its long history that dates back to the 19th century, a ruthlessly ambitious broker who’s pushing for its sale, and assorted other characters, with an inconsistent tone that ranges from over-the-top hamming it up (Jennifer Byrne as the cutthroat broker/pot smoker Bonnie Haskins and an elderly Amish woman who is hunched over, shaky, and hard of hearing) to playing it straight (the emotive Robert Cuccioli as Amos, an Amish widower raising his troubled teenage daughter, who runs away to Niagara Falls in the severe storm with a boy she just met and fell in love with in a few minutes).
Rounding out the cast are Jillian Louis, Christian Magby, Mia Pinero, Jayae Riley, Jr., Pablo Torres, Debra Walton, and Michael Yeshion, whose one-note character types don’t allow them to show much depth or development. Of course, since it’s a musical comedy, it all works out (thanks to the efforts of the resident Mr. Sapper, well-portrayed by understudy Darius Harper, filling in for Seraphin at the performance I attended), everyone comes together (well, almost everyone), and, in the end, they each give us an update on where they happily ended up.
Roberts’ songs are largely unmemorable, with trite lyrics and rhymes (e.g., “It’s wacky, I mean, this is a scene from Halloween” and “What’s all the fuss? Just fix the bus!”), and the choreography by Ashley Marinelli is sometimes nerve-rackingly shaky (most notably, a segment of balancing on a recamier and then a chair) and unsynchronized in the group numbers. Among the most expressive of the songs are “Carriages,” a solo by Cuccioli’s Amos, “This Is New!,” a sweet duet by his teen daughter Rebecca (Pinero) and Dez (Magby), the son of the inn’s owner, as they discover young love, and Sapper’s 11 o’clock number “Bones of the House,” which provides a lesson in history and hope for the salvation of the inn (though he seems to have known about it sooner than he presented it), backed by a four-piece orchestra (conductor and music director Beth Falcone on keyboard, Anthony Morris on bass, Nicole DeMaio on reeds, and J.J. Johnson on viola, with orchestrations by Doug Katsaros).
The artistic design, too, is hit-or-miss, with the sturdy historicizing wooden structure of the interior of the lobby and a movable check-in counter, doors on wheels that suggest a door-slammer comedy (it isn’t), and a large projection screen across the back wall, with scene-setting videos of falling snow and headlines of breaking news reports on TV, and a heavy-handed painting of Niagara Falls that becomes animated with rushing water (set and projections by Brian Pacelli), enhanced with props by Polly Solomon (a vintage pay phone plays a central role, though the story is set in the present), lighting by Kristen Paige, and sound by Julian Evans.
Costumes by Janine Loesch distinguish the Amish from the “English” (the non-Amish), and an opening scene of the visitors who stayed at the inn over the centuries wear apropos period-style clothing, but the surprisingly drab outfits of the cross-dressers, including the green gown that Jacky/Jake (portrayed by Yeshion) is given to dress up in, lack sparkle, and the grey beard of Amos is very obviously fake (hair and make-up by Polly Solomon).
While the show’s underlying message of the need for freedom of self-expression and embracing identity is in keeping with Filloux’s signature activism for human rights, the characters generally lack three-dimensionality and the humor and songs feel more dated than the Big Dipper Inn. It’s got the bones of a musical comedy but could use some fleshing out.
Running Time: Approximately one hour and 40 minutes, without intermission.
Welcome to the Big Dipper plays through Sunday, December 29, 2024, at York Theatre Company, performing at the Theatre St. Jean’s, 150 East 76th Street, NYC. For tickets (priced at $50-80, plus fees), go online.
