“John & Jen”: You see that title, and you think, “Love story,” of course. It is, and a profound one at that. But not how you think. It’s a deeply personal and cathartic tale about abused siblings with some serious bad-dad issues.
The subject is surprising – yet it’s presented within a traditional musical-theater construct that’s anything but surprising. That is its strength and its weakness. It’s alternately moving and cloying; dangerous in content yet incongruously safe in its presentation.
This is a simply staged, two-actor piece that follows a brother and a sister six years his elder from infancy to adulthood (though their never-seen father looms just as large as either of the actors on stage). At times it’s predictable, at others, shocking.
Young John gets toughened up from time to time by a prototypically cold and angry ’50s father this battered boy will defend to the death. She’s a future hippie beatnik who, in the near-total absence of a mother, keeps John safe until she turns 18 and inevitably flies the coop, leaving a vulnerable 12-year-old behind.
The premise alone makes “John & Jen” different from any musical you’ve ever seen. It’s dicey and emotionally explosive. But it’s also a sentimental and whimsical memory play, and that keeps it from becoming as viscerally riveting as it could be. It’s an unsafe story told in a too-safe place.
But in the hands of marvelous pros like Gina Schuh-Turner and Mark Giles, who forge a deeply affecting sibling bond, it’s a powerful and wholly endearing evening.
“John & Jen” is a chamber musical, meaning it was conceived to be presented in a small theater for a small audience with a single piano player player (Troy Schuh, the star’s brother). What makes it perfect for the 49-seat Nonesuch Theater in Fort Collins is also the very thing that would ruin it in a larger space: If you tried to blow this musical up to fit a larger venue, that’s exactly what you’d be doing – blowing it up – because you’d rob it of its intimacy and charm.
The style of the music is pure “Pippin.” It’s mostly “sung narrative” that explores the characters’ feelings. That is, again, wonderful and weird at once. Imagine a wistful variation on “Corner of the Sky.” These songs are also about finding your place in the world – only here that means far from a dastardly dad.
Authors Tom Greenwald and Andrew Lippa are clearly working out some of their own father issues here, which is why their musical rings so true. Jen wasn’t smacked around as a kid, but she’s still plenty damaged as an adult. The most unnerving moment comes when a resentful Jen, now a mother, tries to reconcile her son’s innocent, unconditional loyalty to the grandfather she’s spent her adult life running away from.
“John & Jen” builds to such a powerful, conclusive first-act end, you’ll wonder what’s left of the story to tell. But the authors have a surprise in store for the second act. Suffice to say, Act II offers a different way of examining the difficulties of leaving home.
But the story gets repetitious, and in the absence of harmonies and choral support, the score drifts into sameness. It would be a better musical 20 minutes shorter.
In the end, though, “John & Jen” is about healing, and I can’t think of any better reason to make theater. Director Nick Turner (the star’s husband!) has fashioned a fluid staging that is likely to strike a deep chord within anyone dealing with – or running from – damaged familial relationships.
Nonesuch is presenting “John & Jen” on Sunday and Wednesday nights only, sandwiched between the ubiquitous (death-of-me) musical “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.” And why not? Gina Schuh-Turner performed for more than four years in the Denver staging that remains the longest-running play or musical in Colorado theater history.
But it’s great to see her tackle a completely different challenge here, one that explores darker territory, and opposite such a complementary co-star.
If you have to make a choice between the two, choose “John & Jen.”
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
“John & Jen”
MUSICAL | Nonesuch Theater, 216 Pine St., Fort Collins | By Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald | Directed by Nick Turner | THROUGH OCT. 26 | 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Sundays only (“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” plays Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays) | 1 hour, 55 minutes | $20 | 970-224-0444,
