Dan Myers
Katie Davis singing "The Party Goes With You" in Madison Music Theater's "35MM: A Musical Exhibition"
Finding inspiration for art is a serendipitous thing, sometimes drawn from reality, autobiography — or sometimes from pure fantasy. In the case of the musical exhibition 35MM, produced by Music Theater of Madison (MTM), the inspiration for the 75-minute song cycle was a series of photographs. Contemporary composer Ryan Scott Oliver created 16 songs to tell the stories he imagined behind the sometimes whimsical, sometimes ominous photos taken by his partner Matthew Murphy.
For the Midwest premiere of the work, MTM decided to take the concept of “art inspiring art” one step further. They commissioned area photographers to create pieces inspired by Oliver’s songs — reverse engineering the visual portion of the show. The images were then used in the production, projected onto a screen behind a small ensemble of singers as they performed each number. The art was also printed and framed for an exhibit in the Goodman Center’s Diane Endres Ballweg Gallery.
Oliver’s songs ranged from traditional murder ballad (“Leave Luanne”) to musical theater rom-com duets (“Make Me Happy,” “On Monday,”) to nightmarish, menacing pieces about insanity and vampires (“Crazytown,” “Twisted Teeth,”) to comic novelty pieces (“Caralee”). A couple were self-referential, including “Immaculate Deception,” about photographers capturing horrific scenes but remaining emotionally distanced from their material, and “Why Must We Tell Them Why?” which featured artists protesting against explaining their art to the public.
Presented in a large, generic meeting room in the Goodman Center, the production is spare, allowing audiences to focus simply on the modern rock-opera style songs, and the images that pair with them. An electric keyboard, bass, guitar, and drums provided accompaniment, expertly navigating Oliver’s challenging score. Although it seemed unnecessary in such a small space to mic the singers — all of whom had good, strong voices — the production would have benefitted from more balanced sound mixing that microphones could have provided. Particularly at the start of the show, the singers were frequently fighting to be heard over the band.
Overall, the ensemble (Katie Davis, Zachary Dean, Paige Hutchison Fecteau, Andrew Lonsdale, Krystal Lonsdale, and in the finale, Meghan Randolph) gave confident, enthusiastic performances of some ambitious material. They were emotionally engaged throughout their songs, either with each other or when they spoke directly to the audience. Andrew and Krystal Lonsdale were particularly enchanting in the pieces about love, or love gone wrong. Director Catie O’Donnell also made good use of the small space, with appropriately choreographed movement that enhanced the songs without upstaging them.
In the absence of character, plot, or even a common theme, the evening did seem disjointed at times. And while the idea to involve local photographers in the project was laudable, the photos themselves were not of a consistently high quality. They ultimately did little to enhance the experience. Seeing a body of work from one artist that inspired such a range of songs and stories might have held the evening together better.
Regardless, the show was exciting in its originality. Kudos to MTM for bringing this odd, but electrifying piece to life in Madison, and for presenting it in the non-traditional space at the Goodman Center.
