Those ancient Greeks (Homer and his homies), the writers of the Bible, Dante, not to mention Jean-Paul Satre’s “No Exit” — all sent heroes to harrow the not-quite-hell of purgatory or environs. Just this spring, we’ve had “Hadestown” at Chrysler Hall.
Heavy existentialist traffic didn’t stop Brianna Kothari Barnes from writing and composing a hot 2021 purgatorial rock musical, in its third production. It is now at Zeiders American Dream Theatre in its first fully staged production with live music. It’s called “Rathskeller — A Musical Elixir,” rathskeller being German for an advice-dispensing cellar tavern. Rath, or rat in its contemporary spelling, doesn’t mean rodent. It’s what we call a false cognate, a word in one language that sounds like it ought to mean the same thing in yours but, irritatingly, does not. More on that to come.
The hero of this noteworthy, if a bit raunchy production is, to make things trickier, a definite rat (meaning “lowlife”). His name is John Casey and he’s played by gifted actor/singer (and Virginia Stage Co. familiar) Steven Pacek, the hot glue of this production. He’s directed by glue-meister Patrick K. Mullins, a gifted 15-year veteran of VSC and the executive producer of ROUGE: Theater Reinvented.
Here’s the set and set-up: “Rathskeller” joins the crowded ranks of plays set in bars, e.g., this past season’s “The Weir” at Norfolk Generic Theater. This thrust-stage set features a handsome u-shaped wooden bar with a cleverly wrought pull-out section in the center (set design Dasia Gregg). All else needed is a few tables and chairs, easily manipulated by the bar staff/dancers (Alexandra Fleshman, Moriah Leeward and the charismatic community theater veteran Tré Porchia.) The Z’s thrust stage with steps doesn’t lend itself to much dancing although Jennifer Kelly-Cooper choreographed some smooth moves.
This special bar serves only one main patron at a time (e.g., Casey) in a trial-like examination of his life on earth. One either “passes” this exam or is consigned to the bar for eternity. “The only way out is through,” explains the Bartender/quasi-judge, played by the formidable Kristy Glass, like Pacek, a highly experienced equity actor. The Bartender presides over and participates in a review of Casey’s life, beginning with the day he graduates from Virginia Tech (!) with an exciting, but low-paying prospective job in Nashville, writing copy for ads and songs. His sweetheart Becca (strong singer/actor Alexandra Shephard) is dumping him for a rich guy and adventures in Italy. Casey still has his close female friend, Ty (Janae Thompson) who cares for him but not romantically. She and we soon witness the unhealthy dynamic of Casey’s nuclear family: a mother (Kathy Hinson) who adores her son and an abusive, alcoholic father (James Manno, who, once finally reformed, plays a mean guitar). Pacek strums a bit himself, but the real music is supplied by an upstage, rock band of seven (Jeffrey Russo, leader) who faltered a bit on one number (“Ghost”) but generally prevailed.
We witness Casey’s first major error in judgment, i.e., being bullied into drinking for the first time (he teetotaled through Tech) by his obnoxious father, determined to “make him a man.” This begins Casey’s slow but sure descent into alcoholism and addiction, a process Pacek depicts with exceptionally nuanced acting and singing.
His next big bad decision is to fall prey to Ty’s flashy, back-in-town-to-gloat sister Tasha (Kai Brittani) who gives the singing performance of the evening with her seductive, serpentine “Take One Bite.” It’s Tasha who convinces Casey to ignore Ty’s warnings and accept her diabolically good job offer in, we assume, New York City. Casey is motivated, in part, by his desire to get enough money to rescue his mother from her abuse. (Casey’s most appealing character trait is this desire to save his mother.) The scene soon switches to his hot new life in NYC where he boozes and schmoozes his way to even more power, soon outdoing Tasha herself. But for a man who loves his mother so much, Casey is overbearing to other women, especially Becca (who has returned from Italy and eventually marries Casey), plus his much-put-upon office assistant Peyton (Jessi DiPette). The ladies in Casey’s life unite in their complaints against him in songs such as “Loyalty.” Becca then sings her most moving solo, “Ghost,” to lament the gradual loss of love in their marriage.
“In your perfect planet, where am I?” she queries. Should I keep “dancing with the devil,” she asks, “or should I run?”
The clearest sign of Casey’s decline is his constant drinking, even on the job. Most alarmingly, he loses contact with his mother whom he now neglects. We track her suffering and decline via Ty’s pleas to him. There’s even a song sung to Casey by his mother, after he comes, much too late, to see her. This impossibly poignant “Dying Mother Song” is beautifully executed by Hinson, playing the wheelchair-bound, still-loyal mother.
The most memorable songs in the show, the opener “Deadly,” “The Tale of Rathskeller” and “Take a Bite,” are familiar rock musical fare, but well designed for their purposes. Casey’s late-in-the-show song “What Do I Deserve?” is most useful for stating the show’s radically ambiguous stand on justice and mercy: “If I can’t tell the blessing from the curse/Tell me what do I deserve? … Aren’t we all living in between?”
Here’s some good rath/rat (“advice,” you’ll recall, in German). Don’t be a rat in your life (like Casey), and do chug down this ambitious, well-mixed elixir of a play.
Page Laws is dean emerita of the Nusbaum Honors College at Norfolk State University. prlaws@aya.yale.edu.
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If you go
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 7:30 p.m. Friday; and 3 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Zeiders American Dream Theater, 4509 Commerce St., Virginia Beach
Tickets: $30 with discount options available
Details: 757-499-0317, thez.org
