Review: The Mirror Show Episode 1: Pilot The Understudy Escapes
A coastal storm sweeps up a girl, last seen sunning herself on the beach at St. Tropez, and drops her into ... the sea? No, into a mirror, which is "full of people like you. White trash," according to The Svengali who seems to hold her captive. Like a variety show carnival barker, he makes announcements on a megaphone.
A formal pattern emerges: Brief dialogue between the Lost Girl and Svengali, then an image-forward song by the Actress regarding the surface reflection of things, followed by a somber ballad sung by the Understudy concerning the inner side. And repeat.
The female personas are wonderfully complementary: the statuesque and empty-eyed Actress with the remarkably strong and bright voice; the Understudy, who sings intimately and plaintively while sitting at an unplayed keyboard; and the Lost Girl, an appealing and marvelously girly Alice-type who has fallen down this particular reflective glass hole.
No gestures accompany these cool, melancholy songs about girls, drugs, nightclubs; the glamorous life of a cocaine housewife; and lost and missed love in a false, false world.
In this static staging (most of the time each participant is completely still), sound takes precedence over the minimal and marginal visuals. Insistent house music with its muscular hurling beat alternates with haunting melodies and their odd, intimate little elements.
Set in 2512 (Can this be right?) with the potentially dated element of club music, this mystifying and magical experience is the only musical fringe performance I've seen in the last 13 years whose approach to the genre emerges from the last century and begins to inhabit the 21st century.
Levendorf: Book, Lyrics, Direction / Drew: Music, Score, Production
At 440 Studios - Moss Theater-- New York City FringeNYC 2012
Reviewer: Kathryn Osenlund for CurtainUp.com