"A New Brain"

Theatre review
"A New Brain" at Ithaca College
The Ithaca Journal
March 11, 2009
657 words
"Ithaca College stages a smart 'New Brain'"

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Ithaca College stages a smart 'New Brain'
BY MARK TEDESCHI • CORRESPONDENT • APRIL 2, 2009

"A New Brain," the new show from Ithaca College's Theatre Department, embarks on a difficult, thin-ice mission: to explore equally the comedy and tragedy of a sudden, life-threatening ailment. A serious malady has the unremitting power to bring out the best and the worst not only in its victim, but its victim's friends and family alike.

When composer/lyricist William Finn was diagnosed with a cerebral arteriovenous malformation, he feared that his best work would remain unfinished, so he harnessed his talent and focused his efforts toward creating "A New Brain." With music and lyrics by Finn and book by Finn and James Lapine, "A New Brain," directed by Susannah Berryman, manages to sustain an enjoyably light story while paying appropriate respect to the gravity of lamentable circumstances.

First, there's the matter of Cornell University Professor Kent Goetz's phenomenal set design. Goetz has transformed the Clark Theater stage into something reminiscent of the laboratory of a mad scientist harboring an obsession for American modernist painting. All sizes of green squares, red and yellow circles, and black lines decorate the floor and backdrop. Surprise projected lighting design tricks by the highly skilled, local-theater-staple IC senior Kelly Syring keep the simple setting - present-day Manhattan - dynamic and spirited.

Ben Fankhauser plays Gordon Schwinn, a songwriter for a children's television show. Troubled by writers' block, Gordon, after a brief run-in with a decrepit homeless woman (Catherine Lena Stephani) meets with his agent, Rhoda (Meredith Ashley Beck) for dinner. Shortly after the first of several hallucinations involving a man (Jeffrey Schara) in an elaborate frog suit (think plaid vest and gigantic polka-dot bow tie), Gordon utters, "Something is wrong!" and collapses.

He is taken to the hospital, where his loving mother, Mimi (Mariah Ciangiola) arrives, his indifferent Doctor (Alex Krasser) confirms the imperativeness of dangerous surgery, the hospital Minister (Bruce Landry) gives little help, and two nurses - the "thin" one, Nancy (Hillary Cathryn Patingre), and the "nice" one, Richard (Jeremy Cole Reese) offer their support.

As Gordon is taking in this barrage of new information, his life partner Roger (Danny Lindgren) returns from a sailing trip. Their relationship is compassionate and without significant strife throughout "A New Brain"; the main characters' closeness strengthens the show's focus on the individualized responses that Gordon's hospitalization evokes. And with less attention to traditional story narrative, the production's energetic style opens up.

There are 34 musical numbers (arranged by Jason Robert Brown) in "A New Brain," but the show itself is well under two hours with no intermission. Most of the storytelling occurs through song, a Sondheim-esque method delivered here with a just-right combination of music (directed and conducted by Joel Gelpe), volume (Jillian Marie Walker, sound designer), and elocution. Finn's thick lyrics flow clearly from the actors in, for example, "Family History" and "Gordo's Law of Genetics," as they simultaneously execute innovative choreography by Adam Pelty, the man behind the beautifully chaotic dancing in IC's "The Wild Party" last November. Director Berryman (whom you might have seen acting downtown at the Kitchen Theatre this season in "Happy Days" and "Tony and the Soprano") brings the performances together with her superior sense of timing and transition.

By the first full-ensemble number, "Heart and Music," it's easy to see the wealth of talent onstage. Not all of the numbers are vital ("Sailing," while well written, felt unessential), but all of the cast members have terrific voices. Often, Ainsley Anderson's costumes enhance the characterization in performance: Stephani, in a beat-up Buffalo Bills sweater and a tattered overcoat, breaks out in the powerful ballad "Change"; and Ciangiola, wearing a black evening gown, plucks at the heartstrings in "The Music Still Plays On." Nurse Richard doesn't look nearly as fat as he's apparently supposed to, but Reese's vocal versatility blossoms in "Eating Myself Up Alive."

Fankhauser brings forth Finn's initial vexation and subsequent determination. "I want to love, but I need to write," Gordon admits. If Finn indeed reached the same conclusion as Gordon and produced songs like the closing "I Feel So Much Spring" as a result, I say he made the right choice. In "A New Brain," Finn's artistic and emotional legacies are one and the same.


Sheryl Sinkow/Provided
William Finn's wry musical "A New Brain," at Ithaca College Theatre through Saturday, April 4, looks at a life interrupted by illness and reclaimed through love and forgiveness. Pictured are Ben Fankhauser, Danny Lindgren and Max Lorn-Krause.