Tomorrow Morning

Tomorrow Morning (with book, music and lyrics by Laurence Mark Wythe) is a musical I wanted very much to love. It's a wholly original musical—not adapted from any film, play or novel—and we could use more of those. And the concept that its creator came up with is ingenious: we are simultaneously watching a couple at two different points in time, 10 years apart. We meet them on the night before they are set to get married—and also on the night before they are set to get divorced.

The show began promisingly. I relished hearing real, honest-to-god theater music—fresh music that's part of the tradition suggested by Stephen Sondheim and Jason Robert Brown. Not recycled pop/rock hits. Moreover, I warmed to the actors chosen by director Tom Mullen: The actors playing the older couple (D. B. Bonds and Mary Mossberg) sang better, with greater ease.  The actors playing the younger couple (Matthew Hydzik and Autumn Hurlbert) had more personality.  But all were likeable, and the partners had good chemistry.  But Wythe's melodies didn't have enough variety, and this nearly through-sung show often felt static. There was a fair amount you could like in this show. But not enough to really love. And the happy ending felt tacked on; it felt like a cheat—a happy ending offered because the writer thought audiences might prefer one, even if it didn't seem to emerge organically from the story itself.

Chip Deffaa
Cabaret Scenes
April 6, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org