Psychiatry is certainly an interesting subject for a musical and one ripe for drama, comedy and parody, but Sessions, (book, music and lyrics by Albert Tapper) playing Off-Broadway, tries a bit too hard to be both serious and cutesy, never really getting to the roots of its subject matter.
Set in a mid-town Manhattan office (a wonderful set by Peter Barbieri, Jr.), Dr. Peterson (Matthew Shepard) conducts group sessions for his patients. There's Sunshine (Kelli Maguire) a recovering alcoholic with mother issues; Mary (Trisha Rapier), a woman regularly beaten by her husband but who can't bring herself to leave him; George (Scott Richard Foster) a nerdy young man pining for his former girlfriend of years before; Mr. and Mrs. Murphy (Bertilla Baker and Jim Madden) a long-time married couple who bicker about the smallest things; and a wanna-be rebel (David Patrick Ford) with a Bob Dylan complex. An interesting group to be sure, but the show tries to give each one of them equal time, with a result that none of them really get a chance to come alive.
Additionally, the audience comes into the story so late (when all of these people have been at group for some time), it feels as if we've missed important details of what's gone before. As such, we never get a chance to care about these folks or their problems; serious though they may be. (Perhaps the most interesting, at least in the beginning, is the character of Baxter (Al Bundonis), a man with a troubled relationship with his father, and who we see meeting Dr. Peterson for the first time. But like the others, he's never given a chance to fully develop.
While not dealing with his patients, Dr. Peterson has problems of his own. Caught in a marriage fast growing stale, he finds himself attracted to Leila (Amy Bodnar), a young woman in the group with a history of troubled relationships. He also begins to doubt his abilities when tragedy befalls one of his patients.
There are some flashes of brilliance. These include scenes with Peterson talking with an unseen voice (Ed Reynolds Young) who may be his own therapist or just a voice inside his head. The opening of the show, which starts things off with a light, irreverent tone is fun to watch and the acting is enjoyable throughout. Maguire, Bonder and Rapier have the strongest voices, but all work well with the material given, as does director/chorographer Steven Petrillo, who keeps the action moving nicely.
Unfortunately, the show never really comes together. Plus, it's kind of hard to really feel sorry for some of these people given their circumstances.(It might have been better to have patients from a lower economic strata.) The score is sometimes lazy and repetitive, as is the script (where we have mother issues, father issues, and mother and father issues). There are also a few things that are just not believable, such as too many people coming to terms with problems at the same time.
In addition to the sets, Deborah Constantine's lighting is also very good, as are Mr. Barbieri's costumes.
Sessions
Presented by Algonquin Theater Productions and Ten Grand Productions, Inc.
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
416 West 42nd Street
Tickets: 212-279-4200 or www.ticketcentral.com
Closes: August 18, 2007
Judd Hollander is the New York correspondent for the London publication THE STAGE.
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