    
Elizabeth
Citizen
Username: Elizabeth
Post Number: 328
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Monday, April 17, 2006 - 1:55 pm: | 
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From the Daily Record
The daring, dazzling musical adaptation of "A Midsummer Night's Dream,"which closed last week at Princeton University's McCarter Theatre, was everything that McCarter's audience has come to expect.
But, as they say, will it play in Peoria? How about Millburn, home to Paper Mill Playhouse and its traditionally conservative audience? We'll find out this week, when the unprecedented co-production moves from one of New Jersey's two largest-funded theaters to the other.
The members of GrooveLily, the trio responsible for "Midsummer's" musical element, hope that the good vibes enjoyed in Princeton will follow them to Paper Mill. So far, they're having a ball, jamming with the lovers, fairies and other inhabitants of Shakespeare's mystical forest.
The imaginative music of this New York City-based group -- Valerie Vigoda on violin, her husband, Brendan Milburn, on keyboards and Gene Lewin on drums, with all three sharing vocals -- is just one of many elements that distinguish this production, but GrooveLily was the first piece of the puzzle that brought the two theaters together.
"It's been quite a year,"Vigoda said. "We just had a baby, a 6-month-old boy named Mose. I was quite round during the first three meetings."
Once director Tina Landau was added to the mix, the creative juices bubbled over into the amazing spectacle headed for Millburn.
"We wrote the music and we perform the music, but honestly, it's Tina's baby," Lewin said. "We are Tina's collaborators."
Landau tapped into the band's solid songwriting skills and talent for creating a variety of musical moods and styles.
"The first thing we did was write three songs commenting on the action," Vigoda said. "She (Landau) really liked them and tried to start thinking of ways to use parts or all of them in the show. After we had done that, she gave us a marked-up script with everything she thought should be musicalized in italics. From there, we would go back and forth. She would say, 'You know, this sounds a little bit too mischievous and sprightly to be an Oberon spell. Let's make this a little darker.'"
"In this project, we kind of started playing first instead of writing and bringing written material into the room," Lewin said.
"It flowed far more organically than it usually does, and I think that's why the score sounds so much of the piece,"Milburn said. "We started with the jams, something we never, ever do, and turned them into songs and underscoring and setting of Shakespeare's text. And what we've discovered is that we love working this way. ... Because it was an otherworldly type of mood that we were trying to evoke with the fairy world ... we felt we didn't have to adhere to the structures and the constrictions of having to write perfect pop songs. It's so much fun to make music this way."
Several years of touring across the country have given them a sense of comfort and confidence in front of large audiences. They've also had some acting experience, performing in their own "Striking 12" holiday musical, based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl."
Their "Midsummer" experience, though, is on another level. Not only do they perform the music onstage, but they also join the cast, playing members of the "rude mechanicals"acting troupe that puts on the infamous "Pyramus and Thisbe" play within a play.
"I've learned a ton working with Tina," Lewin said. "And working with these actors has been incredibly educational from an acting standpoint."
Thanks in part to the strong buzz generated by the show, Vigoda said, "the phones are ringing." There's also some hope of a life for "Midsummer"beyond Paper Mill, although they stress there's nothing beyond "rumors and whispers."
One promise, however: "It may be, just because of Equity rules, that it may just be a 'GrooveLily does 'Midsummer,'" Vigoda said. "But in some way, the music from this show is going to be recorded and released."
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" continues through May 21 at the playhouse, Brookside Drive, Millburn. Tickets are $19-$68. For more information, call (973) 376-4343 or visit www.papermill.org.
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