LOBSTER GIRL
Presented by Stoneham Theatre, Stoneham, through June 25. Tickets: $20-$55, 781-279-2200, www.stonehamtheatre.org
Steven Barkhimer is a playwright, actor, musician, and composer, but he’d never written a musical until Stoneham Theatre artistic director Weylin Symes asked him to compose the songs for “Lobster Girl.’’ “I was terrified,’’ Barkhimer says, “so I said yes.’’
The charming story about a soon-to-be-stepfather’s attempt to bond with his soon-to-be-stepdaughter during a trip on his lobster boat is having its world premiere at Stoneham through June 25. “This is really a play about forming a new family,’’ says Symes, who wrote the book for the show and is directing. “I liked the idea of a musical that reflects the area where we live, and nothing says New England like lobsters.’’
The story of a lobsterman was easy for Symes to reference since he spent summers growing up in Rockport, and one of his brothers was a lobsterman for a decade.
“It was important that the setting create a kind of playful reality,’’ he says. “The goal is a family-friendly show with an uncomplicated story and some heartfelt emotion.’’
Symes, who is making his debut as musical book writer, says he handed Barkhimer a nearly completed script with notes that said things like “needs a song that works like a sea shanty’’ and “maybe a ballad here.’’ Rather than feel constricted, Barkhimer says Symes’s frame gave him a great foundation.
“I’m a better lyricist than musician,’’ says Barkhimer, who in fact plays keyboards and several woodwind instruments as well as a variety of stringed instruments. “I took great delight in writing quietly profound lyrics.’’
The 14 songs in the 90-minute show, which will be performed by a three-piece ensemble of guitar, violin, and keyboard, include some rousing ensemble numbers, a couple of ballads, and a bit of a cappella, four-part harmony for such songs as “The Ballad of Ol’ Joe,’’ “The Tao of Jake,’’ and “A Fine Mesh We’re In,’’ which celebrates the interconnectedness of people and things.
“Weylin gave me some quirky characters, like a young girl who is reading Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species,’ and a guy who is trying to explain the repetitive and almost meditative nature of his job,’’ says Barkhimer. “Those are things I can dig into. I love the idea that, like Darwin, these ordinary people are trying to figure out how we adapt in order to evolve.’’
Barkhimer and Symes had worked together over the years at Stoneham (Barkhimer just finished performing in “Laura’’ there and was the music director for “Lumberjacks in Love’’). He knew the many productions for which Barkhimer had composed incidental music, and after listening to a CD of original music that Barkhimer had released nearly a decade ago, Symes was confident he’d come up with the right feel for the songs.
“My gift is making small things fit together economically so they sound impressive,’’ says Barkhimer. That may be the perfect description of “Lobster Girl.’’
There’ll be Bedlam in Cambridge
Bedlam, the New York-based theater company that offered a breathtaking production of “Saint Joan’’ last year, is back in Central Square. Through July 10, the Nora Theatre Company will present Bedlam’s “Twelfth Night’’ running in repertory with “What You Will,’’ both featuring the same five actors playing all the roles. (Tickets: $15-$59, 617-576-9278, www.centralsquaretheater.org)
“I think with a well-known play like ‘Twelfth Night,’ we assume people know it, so we miss the details Shakespeare included that make these characters fully human,’’ says Bedlam’s artistic director and ensemble member Eric Tucker. “I think of this as a new play — our primary job is to make the story clear.’’
Tucker and Bedlam have won swooning reviews in New York for their repertory partnering of “Saint Joan’’ and “Hamlet,’’ “The Seagull’’ and “Sense and Sensibility.’’ But the pairing of two versions of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,’’ whose subtitle is “What You Will,’’ was a happy accident, Tucker admits.
“We originally wanted to pair ‘Twelfth Night’ with Clifford Odets’s ‘The Country Girl.’ But the rights weren’t available.’’
At the same time, as the ensemble rehearsed “Twelfth Night,’’ Tucker says all kinds of questions and opportunities arose. Unlike most theater companies, Bedlam devotes several months to rehearsals, and although director Tucker creates the “world of the play,’’ every member of the company “devises’’ the way the story will be presented. The result is two distinctly different versions of Shakespeare’s tale of shipwrecked siblings, misplaced affection, gender disguises, and clowning fools.
“It’s important to set the tone,’’ says Tucker, “to create the world and then keep the audience leaning forward.’’ What Bedlam does, he says, is look at Shakespeare’s tale from two distinctly different angles.
“ ‘Twelfth Night’ is Bedlam’s bare-bones version and feels almost like you are watching the tail end of rehearsals. ‘What You Will’ is the more stylized, conceptual version, but both ask the audience to use their imaginations and see things differently. I think that’s the joy of live theater.’’
Tales to spin, books to sign
Alvin Epstein, award-winning actor who starred in the Broadway debut of “Waiting for Godot’’ and was a longtime member of the American Repertory Theater acting company, will be in Cambridge June 13 at 6 p.m. for a talk and book signing in the Loeb Drama Center’s west lobby. Epstein, who recently turned 91, will be joined by fellow actor Jonathan Fried, who recorded Epstein’s tales from his seven-decade stage career in the enchanting collection “Dressing Room Stories: The Making of An Artist.’’
LOBSTER GIRL
Presented by Stoneham Theatre, Stoneham, through June 25. Tickets: $20-$55, 781-279-2200, www.stonehamtheatre.org
Terry Byrne can be reached at trbyrne@aol.com.
