On Nov. 9, 1965, a massive blackout in the Northeastern United States left New York City in the dark for up to 13 hours. It’s the crux and the climax of Fly By Night, a jaunty and sentimental musical getting its regional premiere as the opening production of Ensemble Theatre’s 33rd season.
It’s the kind of show that D. Lynn Meyers, ETC’s artistic director, loves to launch a season: a romantic musical full of heartfelt tunes and unabashed emotions. Its authors (Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick and Kim Rosenstock) call it a “dark comedy,” not just because of the power failure that doesn’t occur until late in the second act. Along the way some surprising turns of events make the story more dark than comic. The story begins in sadness, takes an entertaining and frequently amusing upswing and then ends poignantly and unexpectedly.
Harold McClam (Michael Gerard Carr) is a melancholy fellow in New York City. His mom just passed away and his dad (Phil Fiorini) is lost in grief; Harold has a dead-end job as a sandwich maker, employed by a grouch named Crabble (Michael Bath). Harold hopes to make music with his mom’s old guitar, but he can’t get started.
Things change thanks to two sweetly eccentric sisters from South Dakota who recently landed in the city: Daphne (Maya Farhat) aspires to be a Broadway musical star; Miriam (Brooke Steele) is satisfied to work as a waitress, although she’s fasci- nated with astronomy. Joey Storms (Patrick Phillips), a wannabe playwright, recruits Daphne for a show he’s writing, clearly a ploy to spend time with her.
A handful of other characters — the sis- ters’ mother, a fortuneteller, a snooty retail store manager — are played by a Narrator (Nathan Robert Pecchia), who quickly slips in and out of these small roles employing a handkerchief, physical postures and distinctive voices. Pecchia is the show’s philosophizing tour guide, leading us through a slightly bewildering chronology that starts, stops, backtracks and repeats events that played out during the year between Harold’s mother’s death in 1964 and the blackout in 1965.
Harold, an unlikely suitor, gets engaged to Daphne, who’s constantly rehearsing Joey’s play. When a loony fortuneteller says Miriam will soon encounter her soul mate, she meets Harold, whose engagement to Daphne is a definite problem. Their love triangle is the focus of Fly By Night, but we also discover the frustrations of Crabble (a former air traffic controller); the unending false starts of Joey’s play, The Human Condition; and the sadness of Mr. McClam, who moons about carrying a portable record player and an LP of Verdi’s La Traviata, the opera he saw on his first date with Harold’s mother.
Carr, Steele and Farhat are wonderful vocalists and vivid actors. Carr captures Harold’s indecisive nebbishness perfectly. As Daphne, Farhat evinces the kind of chutzpah required to believe in a musical theater career. And Steele’s Miriam is unassuming and sweet, then morally perplexed. Their songs individually and together are unstintingly entertaining.
Pecchia is an able, provocative guide from start to finish, lending the story a metaphysical thread. Fiorini’s sadly nostalgic Mr. McClam has a wonderful, restorative solo number recounting his romance and the role opera played. Bath is a wonderful comedian, especially when the irascible Crabble finds a moment to shine late in the story. He and Carr have a delightful stand-alone number, “Eternity,” describing the tedium of sandwich making.
Moment-to-moment, Fly By Night is an endearing evening, full of charming music, although much of it begins to sound the same. Overall, Fly By Night feels at least a half-hour too long. The second act becomes a tad repetitive as the culminating moment of the blackout draws near — enhanced by lovely evanescent starlight created by scenic and lighting designer Brian c. Mehring.
If you’re a straight-up romantic who believes in fate and destiny, I suspect you’ll love this show, ETC’s fine production and its love-able cast. If you’re more of a skeptic (and I’m afraid that’s where I come down), you might feel it’s too much of a good thing. And fasten your seatbelt for the unexpected, heartbreaking finale.
Fly By Night, presented by Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati (1127 Vine St., Over- the-Rhine), continues through Sept. 29. Tickets/info: ensemblecincinnati.org.
This article appears in Sep 5-12, 2018.
