Buzz Bellmont Review
Run, don’t walk, to see UNLOCK’D, the new musical at Queensbury Theatre. Director Marley Singletary has magnificently staged and directed Derek Gregor’s (Music) and Sam Carner’s (Book and Lyrics). UNLOCK’D is these guys’ first musical from 15 years ago, when they began their careers. Chicago producer Judy Loseff is planning on taking UNLOCK’D to Broadway. The production at Queensbury is a workshop production to tighten the show to make the show Broadway-worthy. The show is based on Alexander Pope’s English poem “the Rape of the Lock,” written in arch heroic couplets (rhyming lines in iambic pentameter). Sam Carner’s program notes also state that UNLOCK’D is about “embracing the uncertainties of life, putting aside the ‘supposed to’s’ of life, accepting our truest selves, learning how to value each other’s needs, and discovering love.”
Carner’s and Gregor's music and lyrics are, indeed, the stuff that great Broadway musicals are made of. WIth 21 diverse songs, the memorable music and impressive lyrics drive this beautiful new musical to perfection. The book could use some work as it becomes tedious at times. When it is refined and pared down in this workshop, UNLOCK’D will be a masterpiece.
Director Marley Singletary has so impressibly cast this production that I cannot imagine any other musical comedy actors in these roles. Only 10 actors occupy the stage and they are all the best of the best. And each one shines in their own way.
Katie Porterfield, one of my. favorite new stars on the horizon, who is now living in New York, makes a triumphant and brilliant return to the Houston stage as Clarissa Evers, the step sister of Belinda Evers (awesomely played by Shanae’a Moore), whose lovely hair has made her the star of England, sought after by a multitude of men who must receive a lock from her famous hair to receive her hand in marriage.
Stages Repertory. Theatre’s and Theatre Under the Stars—Houston’s brightest stars are here i comical abundance. Mark Ivy is his usual terrific self as a gnome, a lock of Belinda’s hair and Inconstantine, a British statesman.
McKenna Marmolejo and Adrienne Shearer are funny and impressive as the other two fairies and in multiple characters. The two suitors we meet are the handsome and vocally inspiring Thomas Griffin Williams and Patrick Masseym who fill the stage with testosterone for days. Phillip Brown camps it up mightily as Zeus.
Costumes by Krisin Knipp and Amber Sepanic are fabulously stunning.
Set design by Ryan McGettigan is brilliant. He has imagined a series of moving hedges or topiaries from which actors appear and disappear seamlessly.
Lighting design by Christina Giannelli perfectly illuminates every corner of the stage.
Musical direction by Jonathan Craft is superb.
Erik Olmos Tristan’s wig and make-up design is splendid.
Dana Lauteriung Lewis’ choreography is cleverly conceived.
I said it before and I will say it again: Run to Queensbury Theatre to see this marvelous Broadway-bound musical.
Carner & Gregor: Bigger in Texas - a 1-night concert in Houston are appearing on Monday, February 19 at The Music Box Theater at 7:30 p.m. I will be there!