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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2011 > April > 26 > Entry
Review: “I’ve Never Been So Happy”
Half-way through “I’ve Never Been So Happy,” the endlessly charming off-beat musical by the Rude Mechs now getting its debut at the Off Center, the audience spends intermission taking a spin through a Western-themed carnival, its whacky attractions all handmade with found material.
The tongue-in-cheek attractions — there’s a “Redneck Drive-In” and a “Land Grab General Store” — make for a participatory coda of sorts to the imaginative, high-spirited production that’s flutters freely between meta-theater and prankish fun without a hint of irony, mimicking in look and feel the handmade and heartfelt tenor of the outside carnival.
The Rudes have been unfolding “I’ve Never Been So Happy” for three years, bringing it to audiences in several exuberant in-progress productions.
Now in its final form, the hijinks haven’t stopped, thankfully. Nor has the sweetness. Whatever else it’s about (the myth of the American West, gender roles, love), “I’ve Never Been So Happy” finds a way to lasso up all the good things about the theater and how silly and fun and sincere it can be when it’s done wisely.
With a book and lyrics by Kirk Lynn and music and lyrics by Peter Stopschinski, the fetching production is co-directed by Thomas Graves and Lana Lesley. But every inch of the show is celebration of the Rudes’ well-honed collaborative process. (The show was one of only seven across the nation to receive a grant from the NEA’s Distinguished New Play Development Project.)
It’s a totally seamless blend — and crazy mash-up — of Dayna Hanson’s playful non-stop choreography (five company members actually play the role of back-up dancers), Miwa Matreyk’s beguiling video-work (part simple animation, part light show) along with a slew of electric character performances (as a pair of sibling dachsunds, Jenny Larson and Paul Soileau bring pitch-perfect oddness to their roles).
Stopschinski’s score— played by a string and guitar ensemble with the composer at the keyboards and pre-recorded samples — slides gracefully from sweet pure country songs to crazy pop references (disco, heavy metal) to elegiac almost-arias.
Yes, there’s a plot in there, too. The young Annabellee (an animated Meg Sullivan) wants desperately out of her father’s country and western show while nearby in the big American West, Jeremy (a kinetic E. Jason Liebrecht) has just been kicked out of the all-female commune where his mother has raised him. The two are star-crossed lovers before they’ve even met. And the pair must enlist the pair of pet dachsunds as well as a line-up of eccentrics (Kerri Atwood sings impressively as the Sherif as does Cami Alys as Jeremy’s mother) to reach their happily ever after.
Merging a lovely modern lyrical poetry with slapstick colloquialism, Lynn’s lyrics (libretto?) fills in the imaginative underpinnings to the story. When it comes right down it, what is free and wild? What if everything is connected to everything after all?
In its goofy guilelessness, “I’ve Never Been So Happy” is arguably the most mature work the Rudes’ have produced to date. “Let’s find a way to hang out forever,” the entire cast sings at the end. Yes, let’s — let’s hang out and go see the Rudes
“I’ve Never Been So Happy” continues through May 8. www.rudemechs.com
Photos by Bret Brookshire.
Comments
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By Ralph Yankwitt
April 27, 2011 10:03 PM | Link to this
I saw the production in DC a few months ago. I’m seeing it again next weekend in Austin. No doubt I will have the opportunity to see it another time as it is sure to be the most memorable ” touring” production to ever originate from Austin ……good stuff / really good stuff.