In the new musical Ten Brave Seconds, by the time Wooster High School student Mike is looking for a refuge and reset in Mr. G’s classroom, it has been a hellish day of spiraling emotions for the boy. From the time when he woke up that morning, one blunt confrontation after another has repeatedly exploded with either his father, sister or best friend.
A science fiction fan with dreams of becoming an astronaut, Mike has finally mustered the courage to let everyone know that he’s gay. However, everything up to that late Tuesday afternoon has gone spectacularly wrong. Mike hopes that Mr. G, the history teacher whose tough-love game is wise and plainspoken, can guide him to clarity and wisdom.
That scene sets up the epiphanic pivot in Ten Brave Seconds, a new musical that admirably balances the subjects of grief and the coming-out experience. The show is a roller coaster, swinging back and forth from the familiar ebullience of youthful bravado to an unexpectedly robust emotional catharsis that springs from the raw, rugged, exposed interactive chemistry within the entire ensemble.
With music and lyrics by Will Van Dyke and book and lyrics by Jeff Talbott, Ten Brave Seconds, directed by Ellie Heyman, offers bristling, visceral character performances, accompanied by a score of some marvelous pop songs and scintillating choreography that propels the show’s pace and dramatic muscle in crucial moments. Produced by Pioneer Theatre Company, Ten Brave Seconds continues its premiere run through Feb. 14.
The musical’s artistic intentions encompass personal emotional epiphanies that also happen to engage the audience with their underlying historical and political currents. Ten Brave Seconds is set in Wooster, a small progressive city nestled in the heart of Ohio’s Amish community which has capitalized upon its innovative influence on its agricultural heritage.
A high school junior, Mike (Carson Stewart) sets out on his most important day so far in his young life on April 28, 2015. The specific date matters for reasons that reflect upon the musical’s twin themes.
This would have been the day of his mother’s birthday, but six months prior, she was killed in an accident by a drunk driver. The tragedy happened after his parents erupted into a huge argument and his mother impulsively left to cool her fury. Unfortunately, before anyone in the family could apologize and reconcile for what caused the fight and reaffirm their love for each other, she was killed.
Both harboring feelings that their behavior ultimately was responsible for her death, Mike and his father, Carl (Will Blum) struggle mightily with accepting the reality that grief equals love. Meanwhile, Becky (Heidi Farber), Mike’s younger sister who is a freshman at the same school, is witness to the emotional tsunami between her brother and father that already is going full speed at breakfast before school. To cope with the family turmoil, Mike relies heavily on Gabby (Jessica Money), his best friend, for emotional support. However, it is apparent that gentle rippling emotions are not in the forecast on this late April day.
Meanwhile, amid the restless beehive of students at school, Mr. G (John Cariani) connects his history lesson for the class to a major event happening that same day in Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court is hearing arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark case which ultimately legalized same-sex marriage across the country. The reference is not incidental. It is a scaffolding element that leads to the emotional pivot in the second act in the scene with Mike and Mr. G.
At school, Mike talks to Tim (Luke Kolbe Mannikus), a new student who is out and they spark their friendship in the song Ride to the River. While their initial encounter is awkward, the two are evidently interested in each other. But Mike is too afraid to let Gabby discover the truth about him, so he attempts to arrange a movie date between his best friend and Tim, which they see as a bewildering gesture.
By lunchtime, the brunt of the emotional drama has unfolded, thanks to everyone’s impulsive actions. Gabby commandeers Mike’s phone and sends a disrespectful text to his father, which leads first to a phone argument when Mike, in the heat of his anger, blurts out the news that he is gay. This cascades into a scene with Carl showing up at school to talk to Mike, which doesn’t improve the situation. Mike also brutally snaps back at Becky in the school hallway.
When Mike tells Gabby that he is gay, a new tsunami crashes ashore. Gabby wonders if her long-term relationship with Mike was nothing more than an exploitative game of false intentions borne of his selfishness. The rest of the school day brings no sign of peace and reconciliation among anyone.
Frustrated, feeling hopeless and emotionally defensive, Mike visits Mr. G who is wrapping up the day in his classroom while listening to a report about the Supreme Court hearing. Mr. G, who is gay and has a partner, is unsurprised at Mike’s news, but he offers a lesson to Mike that suggests he can recover from, as he describes it, an emotional earthquake of a 7.0 magnitude.
This pivotal scene is eloquently portrayed by Stewart and Cariani. Mr. G’s spotlight song, Beautiful Boys of Boystown, likely catches the audience off-guard, at first. The song takes us back to the 1980s, the AIDS crisis and the famous gay neighborhood in Chicago, where he lived. While the media turned their cameras to New York and San Francisco at the height of the AIDS crisis, except for Boystown residents, few paid attention to the impact in Chicago. It eventually led to ACT UP protests and stickers with the slogan Silence=Death.
Having experienced the hopelessness while watching those he knew and loved become weak and die from AIDS, Mr. G recalls learning to channel his grief and fury into productive avenues as a citizen. In the song, he gives Mike the longitudinal view the teenager desperately needs to start making amends with his family and friends.
That scene forms a vital bridge between the show’s two subjects. When we live with grief that we have experienced, we realize that whatever we were told about it beforehand was pretty much wrong. And, the cultural and social expectations we impose on ourselves and our family and friends cut off the opportunity to connect spiritually to the meaningful value of grief. Just as Mr. G still clearly sees the “beautiful boys” of Boystown, Mike learns that he never has to say good-bye to his mother.
There are standout performances across the ensemble. Cariani, a Tony-nominated actor with a distinguished portfolio of stage, film and television credits, instinctively leads Stewart, a New York based writer and actor with Broadway and Off-Broadway credits, to his finest moments as Mike. With extensive Broadway and Off-Broadway credits, Will Blum, as Mike’s father, digs deep into emotional bursts that magnify the dramatic tension with his son. As Becky, Farber, a local actor and the only teen in the cast, makes a very compelling case for her character’s contributions, especially in A Moment of Silence, the second song in the first act.
Money’s (who is based in Philadelphia) emotional pyrotechnics as Gabby sizzle as much as her singing and footwork. As Tim, the new kid in school, Mannikus (a University of Michigan alumnus) also delivers notable vocal performances. Finally, Amber Iman (Broadway and Off-Broadway portfolio), has an offstage part, in providing the voicemail message from Sally, Mike’s mother, which was saved after her death.
Major kudos to Reed Luplau, an alumnus of the Australian Ballet School who has set works for ballet and dance companies in Australia, for stellar choreography which put the ensemble through gutsy, athletic displays of steps and movement. Musical support is excellent, with Patrick Sulken leading the pit band of 10 members, and Zachary Daniel Jones does a yeoman’s job as dance captain. Highly recommend downloading the EP, Astronaut 63, which features five songs from the musical, which is available here. The songs include the title track, along with Making Up the Rules, Ride to the River, Sally at the Water Park and Three-Thirty.
As noted in the preview published in The Utah Review, Ten Brave Seconds, under PTC’s aegis, underwent significant revamps throughout its development. This world premiere is dramatically different from PTC’s Insider Reading in September. The first official look is heartening. With some brushstroke revisions and tightening it to a 90-minute length, Ten Brave Seconds should attract investors interested in bringing this show to national audiences. By omitting the need for an intermission, a 90-minute version of this musical should sharpen the continuity of the emotional arcs which the characters experience in the story. Meanwhile, locals should take advantage as the first viewers of this world premiere musical and its superb production values.
For tickets and more information, see the Pioneer Theatre Company website.
While the actors were quite good, both acting and signing, I found the play quite tedious. Teenage angst is not that interesting, at least to an older adult. Moreover, the musical composition was mediocre, lacking both melody (often) and variety (too much repetitious use of numbers in various pieces). The choreography was nowhere near “stellar.” It didn’t amount to much. On a scale of one to five, I’d give this production a 3 minus.