NEW YORK—One of the more engaging diversions currently playing is Charles Mee's Queens Boulevard (the musical), an involving look at marriage, relationships and responsibility to one's friends and community, as seen through a multi-cultural prism.
In present-day Queens (kudos to the set design by Mimi Lien), twenty-somethings Vijay (Amir Arison), a man of Indian descent, and Shizuko (Michi Barall), a Japanese-American woman, have just gotten married. After the ceremony, Shizuko relates how someone gave her a beautiful flower known as the "Flower of Heaven."
Vijay decides to get her another as a symbol of their love, only to find no one has ever heard of such an object. As he continues his search, he meets his friend Abdi (Arian Moayed) going to the funeral of his mother, who convinces Vijay to come along, playing on his community loyalties, which are in direct opposition to his duty to his new bride.
From there, Vijay's travels take him to an Irish bar, a Russian bathhouse, a hospital room, and finally a prison cell, all the while witnessing different examples and opinions about love and commitment.
Meanwhile Shizuko, growing more and more distressed that her husband would desert her on their wedding day, must contend with her somewhat overbearing mother (Ruth Zhang) and a trio of fertility experts. She eventually finds refuge with her girlfriends for a day of shopping and a night of partying. In the end both Vijay and Shizuko realize that loyalty and love to each other is the most important of all; and for them to be a part of their different communities and cultures, they must now do so together as a couple.
The show offers an amusing take on the theme of the quest, where the treasure one finds is not always the one they set out to search for. (Although the final scenes come off as a bit too surrealistic to be quite believable compared to what has gone before.)
This is also a case of the supporting characters being more engaging than the leads, both of whom feel rather bland. Standouts among the cast include Debargo Sanyal as a "Paan Beedi Guy" (a kind of multi-purpose pushcart vender), William Jackson Harper as a cab driver, and Emily Donahoe as Vijay's old fame; one which might not be quite extinguished.
The direction by David McCallum keeps the action moving nicely. The music is enjoyable, though much of it is unnecessary and really doesn't advice the plot. Costumes by Christal Weatherly are fun and the lighting by Marcus Doshi works well.
Also in the cast are Satya Bhabha, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Bill Buell, Demosthenes Chrysan, Geeta Citygirl, Jodi Lin and Jon Norman Schneider.
Queens Boulevard (the Musical)
Presented by the Signature Theatre Company
The Peter Norton Space
555 West 42nd Street
Tickets: 212-244-7529 or www.signaturetheatre.org
Closes; Jan. 6, 2008
Running Time: Approximately 1 Hour, 50 Minutes
Judd Hollander is the New York Correspondent for the London publication The Stage.
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