DOGFIGHT
Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company. At Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts,
May 7-June 4. Tickets: Starting at $25, 617-933-8600, www.SpeakEasyStage.com
NEW YORK — It’s a few days before the new musical “Dear Evan Hansen’’ is set to open at Second Stage Theatre in Manhattan after nearly four weeks of previews, and the show’s co-composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are anxiously resigned to their fate. They and their book writer, Steven Levenson, have put the finishing touches on the score and script, and the show, in theater parlance, has been “frozen’’ for its official opening. “The panicking,’’ Pasek says, “begins now.’’
“You know that critics are coming to the shows now, so it’s nerve wracking,’’ echoes Paul, sitting alongside Pasek in the green room at Second Stage on a recent afternoon. “We just try to make the show as good as it can be, and then let the chips fall where they may. But we’re keeping fingers crossed.’’
The fresh-faced Pasek and Paul, 30 and 31 respectively, are still acclimating themselves to the ups and downs of developing a new musical, but they have already encountered surprising success for a team with just a handful of shows under their belts. “The Heirs of Rodgers and Hammerstein,’’ crowed an article in Vanity Fair about the duo.
Their musical adaptation of the movie classic “A Christmas Story’’ bowed on Broadway in 2012, garnering solid reviews and a Tony Award nomination for best score. That same year, their first professional show, “Dogfight,’’ premiered at Second Stage and captured the Lortel Award for best new musical.
Now, SpeakEasy Stage Company is mounting the Boston premiere of “Dogfight’’ at the Calderwood Pavilion’s Roberts Studio Theatre, beginning Saturday and running through June 4.
The musical, an adaptation of Bob Comfort and Nancy Savoca’s 1991 film starring River Phoenix and Lili Taylor, begins with a group of louche Marines getting ready to ship off to Vietnam from San Francisco. To celebrate their last evening in town, the rowdy servicemen throw a platoon party and stage a “dogfight,’’ a long-standing tradition where the men square off to see who can bring the ugliest date to the festivities.
“The dogfight is sort of a first step in looking at a person and saying, ‘You aren’t a human being, and I don’t have to treat you as such,’?’’ Pasek says. “These are lost, broken boys who were being conditioned to dehumanize people before they had to go to a foreign country and kill people.’’
Out of this queasy premise grows a slow-burning love story between Corporal Eddie Birdlace and the awkward, idealistic waitress Rose whom he brings to the party in order to win the competition against his fellow recruits. But while Rose, an aspiring folk singer who idolizes Woody Guthrie and Joan Baez, may not be conventionally attractive, she’s a smart, spirited woman who shows Eddie the power of love and compassion.
“I think Eddie makes a snap judgment about Rose, who she is and what her value might be as a person,’’ Paul says. “As the rest of the show unfolds, it’s really about them getting to know each other and slowly letting those preconceived notions melt away. Even though they’re very philosophically opposed people, they find a connection, and they find the good in each other.’’
The action in “Dogfight’’ takes place in November 1963 on the eve of President Kennedy’s assassination. The specter of the quagmire that Vietnam would become also hangs in the air. “In the ’50s, we had this idea of a perfect America, an invincible America, and this view that we could do no wrong in the world,’’ Pasek says. “Then Vietnam happens, and it’s the first televised war. We see the truth for the first time, and it punctures our image of what America is.’’
The theme of finding truth and emotional honesty also suffuses “Evan Hansen,’’ about a lonely high school outcast and a lie he perpetuates that balloons out of control, thanks to social media. Both shows center on lost young men who are yearning for real human connection and make morally dubious choices to foster that connection.
The idea for “Evan Hansen’’ was loosely inspired by moments of loss that Pasek and Paul experienced as teenagers. Specifically, there was a student at Pasek’s high school, a loner, who committed suicide. “After he died he became everyone’s best friend, a posthumous rock star,’’ he says. “I remember wanting to have been close to him and sort of inventing ways that I could have been close to him, because I wanted to fix something broken in myself.’’
Pasek and Paul met their first day of freshman year in the prestigious musical-theater program at the University of Michigan. They were aspiring actors, but quickly bonded over a failing they shared.
“We were the two worst dancers in our program. Misery loves company,’’ Paul says. “Then we were doing some of our school shows and getting cast in really horrible parts. I think we were reading the tea leaves a little bit. After seeing that we weren’t going to be star singers or actors on Broadway, we found our way into writing.’’
When the review for “Evan Hansen’’ hit this week, all of Pasek and Paul’s anxieties no doubt subsided. The New York Times said it was “the finest, most emotionally resonant score yet from this promising young songwriting team,’’ while the Hollywood Reporter raved that “not since ‘Spring Awakening’ has a new musical spoken more directly to the melancholy adolescent outsider buried inside us.’’ The buzz is already starting for an anticipated Broadway transfer next season.
“I don’t know if we have high expectations,’’ Paul says. “But we’re hopeful it’s something that will resonate with people. Just to have something be up on stage and running in New York is really a huge thrill for us.’’
DOGFIGHT
Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company. At Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, May 7-June 4. Tickets: Starting at $25, 617-933-8600, www.SpeakEasyStage.com.
Christopher Wallenberg can be reached at chriswallenberg@ gmail.com.
