The Burnt Part Boys

At Playwright’s Horizons, home of some of the more amazing small musicals, another new musical treat, coming over from the Vineyard Theatre, was presented in a charming production. This bluegrass operetta has music by Chris Miller, lyrics by Nathan Tysen and a book by Marian Elder. Just where Marian Elder ends and Nathan Tysen begins is a point of confusion, for the libretto is the kind of collaboration where the piece is so unified that it seems as if it had to come out of one mind. In this small theater, Joe Calaroc has simply staged a quest story about three kids who hike many miles through treacherous terrain to reach the Burnt Part Mine. The depiction of this journey is done on Brian Prather’s warm and woodsy set by the movement of several ladders and chairs to break up and change the playing area for every need imaginable––and imagination is the key for we the audience fill in the blanks after the unit set and actors believably create the largely imagined world.

The small cast is not famous, but top notch, with the young Al Calderon playing the 13 year old Pete––protagonist of the story and remarkable star performer of the show. This boy is given half the score to sing on his own and is saddled with numerous emotionally rich scenes that ask as much if not more than the most demanding male roles in musical theatre. The fantastic news is that Mr. Calderon is up for the task and sings and acts the role with an emotional honesty any actor should aspire to. Mr. Calderon is known from the cast of the musical 13 last season and the DVD of the 75th ANNIVERSARY RADIO CITY CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR. He has a promising future if his past few years of work on stage are any indication.

Pete’s best friend is the geeky Dusty (Noah Galvin) who reluctantly joins the journey along with Frances (Molly Ranson), a runaway tomboy with the smarts to get the group through numerous obstacles. Both render their characters with detail and perform their musical selections with sensitivity and comic aplomb. Pete has stolen some dynamite from his older brother and plans on blowing up the mine to make it impossible to reopen after his father parished there in a cave-in. Charlie Brady plays the older brother Jake and Andrew Durand is his friend Chet, who chase after the kids to stop them from making a big mistake. Rounding out the cast is a small chorus of men who play combination set manipulators, miners and “Greek Chorus”: Randy Redd, Asa Somers and Steve French. Their tight harmonies make the choral music delicious. Michael Park plays a myriad of fictional characters from Pete’s imagination––his boyhood heroes––who show up whenever he needs some advise on which way to turn. A nice duality occurs when after trapped in the mine, Pete’s father comes to him as a ghost––the same actor who had played Pete’s heroes all along. This time all the rest of the group sees Pete’s vision, including Jake, who is able to finally find closure with his father.

The plot serves mostly to cradle the exploration of relationships between the group of friends. Their individual fears, desires, morals and personal goals are challenged with their great sense of community holding them together through a trying ordeal. This is a beautiful little musical, odd in its style and unique in its voice and though its time in New York is now over, hopefully it will rise again in the small professional and community theaters of the world time and again to deliver its sweet heartfelt story.