Asrun (Kate Shindle) and Mayor Manuela (Cady Huffman) go at it in REVOLUTION IN THE ELBOW OF RAGNAR ANGARSSON FURNITURE PAINTER (photo by Carol Rosegg)
Minetta Lane Theatre
18 Minetta Lane between MacDougal St. & Sixth Ave.
Tuesday – Saturday through September 20, $48.50-$68.50
www.revolutionelbow.com
www.minettalanenyc.com
Unfortunately, the best thing about Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson Furniture Painter is its awesome title. The rest is just a well-intentioned but convoluted mess. Inspired by Jesus Christ Superstar and Tommy, Icelandic author, musician, and former journalist Ívar Páll Jónsson (book, music, lyrics) and his businessman brother Gunnlaugur (executive producer) collaborated on a story about the devastating 2008 economic collapse in their home country, turning it into a rock opera about a town living in the elbow of a grungy couch potato furniture painter named Ragnar Agnarsson, whose personage is projected onto the back wall of the stage prior to the show and during intermission. In Elbowville, Peter (Marrick Smith) has invented a prosperity machine that prints promissory notes, allowing him, Mayor Manuela (Tony winner Cady Huffman), and her right-hand man, Kolbein (Patrick Boll), to get rich in a pyramid scheme that eventually comes tumbling down. Meanwhile, Peter cruelly steals Brynja (usually played by Jesse Wildman, but we saw a fine Karli Dinardo in the role) from his shy brother, Alex (Graydon Long), and the third brother, Stein (Brad Nacht), gets caught up in all the money madness with his wife, Asrun (Kate Shindle). “If you act like you know what you’re doing, they will think you know what you’re doing,” Peter tells himself as his carefully created world starts falling apart, but that saying doesn’t apply to the brothers Jónsson, who act like they know what they’re doing in their first production but clearly need a lot more experience.
Rick Faugno, Marrick Smith, and Michael Biren strut their stuff in rock opera about economic collapse (photo by Carol Rosegg)
The live band, under the leadership of bassist Matt Basile (Mother Feather), plays decent indie rock, but the lyrics to such songs as “Midas Reborn,” “All We Need Is Confidence,” and “We Play the Game” are flat and emotionless, letting down a talented cast. Edda Gudmundsdottir’s costumes, following a black, red, and white color scheme, range from very funny to way over the top, while Lee Proud’s choreography comes and goes, then throws in an inexplicable tap number just for the heck of it. Bergur Þór Ingólfsson’s choppy direction doesn’t quite know what to do with Petr Hloušek’s cool set, consisting of stairs and a balcony, with projections that allude to Agnarsson’s insides. Perhaps the strangest decision was to strip the show of all references to Iceland itself, so it turns out there is nothing Icelandic about this production, save for the people behind the scenes — and a seemingly endless supply of visual and spoken lobster jokes. Revolution, which has just posted an early closing notice, has the feel of a bunch of friends getting together to put on a show but not really knowing how to really do that.