Johnny Johnson : Performance

Last night the SOU Department of Performing Arts put on a musical through the combined efforts of the Music and Theatre Arts. The musical, Johnny Johnson: The Biography of a Common Man, was written by Paul Green, with music by Kurt Weill. It was directed at SOU by Randall Stuart, with Jennifer Schloming as musical director, who was also the conductor and played the keyboards in the performance.

The play was about a young, idealistic man, Johnny Johnson, living in the United States just before the start of World War I. He is an artist by trade, crafting tombstones for graves. He builds a monument to peace, yet at the unveiling a declaration is delivered that America has entered the war against Germany. His beloved Minny Belle Tompkins is devoted to the cause of the war, and wants him to enlist. For the sake of his engagement, and for his own moral cause, he joins the war. From there things escalate into a campaign for peace and a
journey of numerous discoveries for Johnny, for better or worse.

The tone of the play is irreverent, in a way, using comedy and music to make a farce out of a bad time. War is not pleasant, and yet the musical is still upbeat, still fun. It makes the audience laugh and, for the most part at least, keeps them entertained. So the heavy subject of war is given levity, and the overarching story in Johnny Johnson is compelling.

Still, Johnny Johnson can't fully escape that dreary feeling sometimes. There are points of definitely slow downs, either needed as the scene shifts between locations in the play's world, or through long musical interludes or chunky dialogue. That is often a curse of musicals, dramatic or comedic: audiences get used to the musical numbers, and holding interest through long sections of dialogue can be difficult. This play walks the line between comedy and drama, striking sad notes just as easily as it does happy. For me, that just makes the moments where it's not doing either more noticeable.

Example time. Not to spoil the play, I'll leave out key details, but there is one moment in the second half of the show where Johnny is with a group of other people, once the war is over. The scene is mostly used to establish the change in Johnny's life, and these new friendships. There isn't a song attached, and the blocking is very center stage oriented. It just seems to drag on, and really slows the flow of the play. I really became aware of just how long it
ran (two and a half hours, give or take) at that moment.

Another thing that sometimes seemed to slow the pace down was the set itself. There were a lot of flats being lowered from above the stage, where images would be projected. They didn’t take much time, and added a neat dynamic to the set. There was also a large, triangular structure with stairs on either side. It was huge, with multiple levels for actors to use, and
could be spun around and angled around the center of the stage. And they certainly used it, one scene comprised of it swinging around all over the place as a war was literally fought around, through and over it. Something about it never felt fluid, fully incorporated into the music and the timing of the scene changes, though. I’m not sure if it was just the visual impact of such a large moving structure, or if there really was drag between changes, but whenever it moved I lost track of the other things on the stage.

Those gripes aside, the production was very good. The actors were well cast and each one seemed to be committed to the characters they were portraying. This was very apparent, not to mention important, here because most of the ensemble were playing more than one part, and characterization to differentiate between them was the rule of the night. It was very much the ensembles' play, providing potent backup in songs, sometimes funny, sometimes haunting. They comprised the townsfolk, the soldiers, the friends and enemies, and they did it
all with enough strength in their individual performances to give the play more than a solid support structure.

The main actors were equally well cast. Johnny Johnson was played by three different leading males, Chris Carwithen, Blaine Johnston, and Scott Scholes, and each one brought something different to the character, while at the same time they all worked brilliantly as one cohesive unit. There were times when all three were on stage at once and yet that was never out of place: it was always one character. Minny Belle was played adorably by Danielle Chaves, who had as strong a singing voice as she did stage presence, which was a joy to
witness. Of course, my favorite character in the play was one of the ensemble parts, the slightly nutty Grandpa Joe, played by Jimmy Garcia. He was absolutely delightful and funny.

By the final ‘curtain’ (there weren’t actually curtains, but the cast lets you know when the it’s supposed to fall), the experience in totality is a good one. It is a well acted, well put together play. It lags a bit, and sometimes the heavy set pieces seem to weigh the play down more than add to its impact, but ultimately it is a fulfilling experience and a good way to spend an evening. It is playing at the SOU Center Stage Theatre through the 28. Exact dates can be found at http://www.sou.edu/theatre/calendar.