On Broadway’s “One Down” Earns a Thumbs Up

With the performance of “One Down”, BU On Broadway sufficiently satisfied a near full house with a tribute to Ben Folds thanks to a decent original script, phenomenal musicians, and talented ensemble, in spite of questionable choreography and some technical malfunctions.

This past Saturday, April 24, BU On Broadway performed “One Down”, an original student-written musical based off of the  music of singer-songwriter-pianist Ben Folds, to a fairly packed GSU Conference Auditorium.

“One Down”’s story of six soon to be high school graduates dealing with the typical teenage tragedies of friends, heartbreak, and imminent change based itself around a series Ben Folds’ classics, including “Army”, “Zak and Sara”, and “Trusted”.

Before I discuss any aspect of BU On Broadway’s production of “One Down”, I must first acknowledge that the musical was created by one of BU’s own, Brett Kohan (SMG ’12).  Regardless of its resulting production, I have to give Kohan, as well as the original writer Annie Norbitz and collaborator and director Liz Furze (CAS ’10), props for merely completing the composition and production of a full-length musical.  Further points are given to the writers for the fact that the show avoided the classic student-written play downfall of merely producing a LiveJournal post performed onstage.  Sure, there were some groaner-fouls with lines like Steven’s “I love my Xbox.  I love my drum set.  And I love Megan Fox.”  But again, I maintain that for a student-written work, the play did good.

By far, the most talented person on that stage was the show’s pianist, Sopan Deb (COM ’10).  With the complexity of Ben Folds’ improv-like piano work, Deb had his work cut out for him, yet his blatant talent allowed him to soar.  Deb’s tribute to Ben Folds’ performance quirks were much appreciated by the audience as they cheered his show opening of pushing away the piano bench and enthusiastically pounding the keys while standing up (even using his foot on occasion).  Luckily, Deb was accompanied by Tom DaSilva (COM ‘10) on drums and Tristan Axelrod (CFA ‘11) on bass who both proved to be gifted in their own right during the course of the show.

Joseph Pratolongo’s (CFA ’11) portrayal of “One Down”’s main character, Ben, provided much of the show’s entertainment.  With theatrics including voice cracks and mop spill ups, Pratolongo embodied high school awkwardness with a dorky demeanor, encouraging laughs and sympathy from the audience.  Additionally, Pratolongo succeeded in carrying much of the show’s vocal demands with solos in six of the fourteen songs.  Though his impression of Ben Folds’ vocal stylings was uncanny, I found Pratolongo to be most entertaining when stepped outside of Ben Folds’ model and tested out his own vocal flare.

The remainder of the ensemble held their own on stage in the midst of Deb’s musical prowess and Pratolongo’s entertaining portrayal.  Though none of the other cast members stood out in the way that Pratolongo did, they certainly kept up performance-wise.  Each of them presented his/her character with conviction, upholding his/her rather two dimensional role from start to finish.  Furthermore, they each had rather pleasant voices to boot, particularly Dana Ortiz (SAR ’10) as Annie and the BosTones’ Alex Warren (SHA ’11) as Zak, making each musical number thoroughly enjoyable.

If only the praise would continue here, yet unfortunately I must touch on the matter of choreography, which left much to be desired.  The entire show consisted of disjointed toe tapping, arm flapping, and the occasional slow turn.  Put simply, if you replaced the Ben Folds accompaniment with the latest “Now That’s What I Call Music” cd, you’d have yourself a middle school dance.  As a dancer myself, I nearly groaned with the ensemble’s jazz-handed, foot-popped poses that concluded “Steven’s Last Night In Town”.  Granted the choreographer faced challenges including a small stage littered with props and a decent sized band, however, I don’t think it’s asking too much for the dance movements to extend beyond the range of the Peanut’s dance.  Perhaps for the next show, choreographer/producer Meredith McClarty (COM ’10) should just stick to her producing strengths.

Lastly, the show’s technical aspects were basic yet suitable for the show’s straightforward design.  My only complaint derives from the initial microphone malfunctions with left the cast drowned out by the pit one time too many to be excusable.  Otherwise, lighting designer Elizabeth Moss (ENG ’13) brought some excellent color to the bare stage, without making turning the show into a fairy tale.  Costumes fit “One Down”’s high school motif with simple tees and jeans.

On the whole, “One Down” offered up a solid effort, in turn providing a show that was quite enjoyable for all.

Correction: Although Kohan created the original idea for “One Down”, Norbitz wrote the original script which was then reworked by Furze for the actual production.