{"id":23963,"date":"2021-07-25T09:55:47","date_gmt":"2021-07-25T16:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=23963"},"modified":"2021-10-05T10:20:55","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T17:20:55","slug":"the-song-of-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/the-song-of-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Song of Summer: a review by Victor Cordell"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jeremy Kahn, Monica Ho. All photos by Jessica Palopoli.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Nostalgia, that palpable yearning for past days of youthful enthusiasm and innocence, comprises the sights, sounds, and smells of those special times.\u00a0 But a frequent trigger of those warm feelings comes from the soundtrack of the time.\u00a0 Playwright Lauren Yee taps that vein and beyond with \u201cThe Song of Summer.\u201d \u00a0With a nod to the music, the playwright takes a charming and humorous look at the relationships and trajectories of our lives.<\/p>\n

Ever self-effacing Robbie has stumbled onto the brink of success.\u00a0 While bartending in Tacoma, the bar\u2019s manager, Joe, sees the potential of a song that Robbie introduced to him.\u00a0 He organizes Robbie\u2019s recording it, and it rises to become the emotional timestamp which young people would most associate with that summer. \u00a0The song\u2019s popularity spawns a national tour for the nascent star, but when he receives boos at a North Carolina concert because some consider his lyrics \u201crapey,\u201d he bails without notifying anyone.\u00a0 His escape is into the bosom of his former piano teacher in Pottsville, PA, a coal town where he had grown up until a dozen years before at age 16.<\/p>\n

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Anne Darragh, Jeremy Kahn.<\/p><\/div>\n

Who could portray Robbie\u2019s nebbishy character more splendidly than Jeremy Kahn?\u00a0 Eminently likeable, a talented musician, and nice looking, Robbie\u2019s diffidence and lack of confidence leads him to repeatedly refer to himself as a 4 on a scale of 10.\u00a0 As much as you like him, you want to make like Cher in the movie \u201cMoonstruck,\u201d and scream \u201cSnap out of it!\u201d and throttle him.<\/p>\n

The piano teacher, Mrs. C, is delightfully performed by Anne Darragh.\u00a0 Kind and supportive, she was more a mother to Robbie than his blood mother.\u00a0 She is also a pack rat.\u00a0 So when Joe, now Robbie\u2019s artistic manager, catches up with him, Joe realizes that Mrs. C may possess information that could help benefit Robbie\u2019s career.\u00a0 Reggie D. White excels as the stereotypical artist\u2019s manager \u2013 hyper, aggressive, and always keeping eyes on the prize, unlike the sometimes dreamy-eyed and ambivalent client.<\/p>\n

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Reggie D. White.<\/p><\/div>\n

And then there is Tina, who had a complex relationship with Robbie growing up.\u00a0 She is the daughter of Mrs. C played wonderfully by Monica Ho.\u00a0 Very grounded as an adult, but in a flashback sequence to high school days, she is revealed as ambitious, yet fun-loving, and adventuresome.\u00a0 She also has a foul mouth that could embarrass a sailor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Song of Summer\u201d contains many stock situations, but they are written and performed with great flair, and the outcomes are not always as expected.\u00a0 Importantly, the play\u2019s subtext provides layers of depth that result in a thoughtful work.\u00a0 Though the work doesn\u2019t wallow in self-importance, this is not an episode of \u201cHappy Days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most important underlying theme concerns the effects of random events in life.\u00a0 People like to think that they exercise great agency over their lives, and often that is true.\u00a0 The dominant life arc of some people may have few arbitrary disruptions, but for others, uncontrollable events create a trajectory as erratic as shots from a loose cannon.\u00a0 Their lives are full of \u201cwhat-ifs\u201d \u2013 if a life-altering appointment weren\u2019t missed; if a parent hadn\u2019t died; if one hadn\u2019t been required to serve in the military, all lead to radically different pathways of life.\u00a0 In this case, what if Robbie hadn\u2019t moved to Tacoma, an act over which he had no control?\u00a0 What if Tina had seen the camcording intended for her?\u00a0\u00a0 But we are also reminded that momentous what-ifs occur from decisions over which we do exercise control.<\/p>\n

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Monica Ho, Jeremy Kahn.<\/p><\/div>\n

Another key element is chosen versus inherited family.\u00a0 Here, the caring Mrs. C acts as the nexus.\u00a0 Although the central element of family is blood kinship, she demonstrates that water can be thicker than blood.\u00a0 Tina did not come to her by birth but by adoption, though their bond is no different than blood relatives.\u00a0 Robbie comes from a dysfunctional background, and Mrs. C was like a mother to him, who he felt comfortable returning to.\u00a0 By design, the playwright specifies characters to have ethnicities – Asian (Tina, who is adopted) and Black (Joe, who had been a replacement singer in The Four Tops) to demonstrate familial linkages across color.<\/p>\n

The play is also about going home again, and the way of life in small town America.\u00a0 There is a clash between the traditional view of unchanging practices and values versus the realities of the modern day.<\/p>\n

Although they are chalk and cheese, Kahn and Ho sparkle together as well as apart.\u00a0 “The Song of Summer\u201d moves along at a brisk pace, and Director Bill English\u2019s clever staging allows for rapid set changes in the absence of intermission.\u00a0 Given the play\u2019s centerline, the show would benefit from having more punch in the musical numbers (especially the opening, but with the exception of the karaoke duet \u201cAlone\u201d).\u00a0 That said, it is a well-acted and directed, fun and provocative play with a modicum of suspense that should appeal to a wide audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Song of Summer\u201d written by Lauren Yee and produced by San Francisco Playhouse appears on their stage at 450 Post St., San Francisco, CA through August 14, 2021.<\/p>\n

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  Nostalgia, that palpable yearning for past days of youthful enthusiasm and innocence, comprises the sights, sounds, and smells of those special times.\u00a0 But a frequent trigger of those warm…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[664],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-victor-cordell"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"