Celia Wren reviews 'High Fidelity: A Musical'

By Celia Wren
Monday, March 1, 2010

Rob, the hero of "High Fidelity: A Musical," revels in his ownership of, as a song puts it, "the last real record store on Earth." Rather than visiting his establishment -- which the Landless Theatre Company has conjured up -- you might want to stay home and spend quality time with iTunes. Working with the ho-hum collaboration between composer Tom Kitt ("Next to Normal"), lyricist Amanda Green and book writer David Lindsay-Abaire, director and choreographer Julie Herber has crafted some mildly amusing bits of stagecraft. But, like a vinyl that's been mishandled, the production lacks crispness.

Derived from Nick Hornby's novel and the 2000 movie adaptation, "High Fidelity" is a tongue-in-cheek troubled-love story narrated by Rob, a Peter Pan-type who relishes running his unprofitable enterprise. (Green's moderately witty lyrics sum up his business ethos: "I get by, relying on the/freaks who can't survive/without their Japanese import/or their Zappa forty-five.") After losing his girlfriend, Laura, to Ian, a creepy New Age guru, Rob is forced to reexamine his life philosophy -- resulting in an implausible epiphany. (Broadway's 2006 "High Fidelity" closed after 14 performances: Landless has gambled that the intimate District of Columbia Arts Center would show the musical off to better advantage, but no such luck.)

Chatting brightly to the audience with a wicked gleam in his eye, Stephen Gregory Smith (a Helen Hayes Award winner for Signature Theatre's "110 in the Shade") makes a reasonably engaging Rob, but the character is too laid back to be interesting. Karissa Swanigan reveals the vulnerability beneath Laura's brisk confidence, and Anya Audette Randall Nebel is aptly bossy as Rob's pal Liz. However, it's Josh Speerstra -- as a blinking music nerd named Dick -- who turns in the most enjoyable portrait. At the reviewed performance, the singing was uneven: Tom Mallan, portraying the kimono-sporting Ian, seemed particularly pitch-challenged.

Navigating around the onstage band, cast members frequently prance onstage in deliberately campy dance sequences: a Bollywood number; a routine with black umbrellas; a hoedown with hoofers clutching albums. Such whimsy is -- and looks -- a tight squeeze in the tiny space, which set designer Jared Davis has outfitted as a music shop, with walls plastered with band posters and milk crates crammed with records.

One of those records, as it happens, is "Thriller." As Kitt's unmemorable rock-pastiche score washes over you, you'll wish you were listening to Michael Jackson's blockbuster instead.

Music by Tom Kitt; lyrics, Amanda Green; book, David Lindsay-Abaire; based on the Nick Hornby novel and the Touchstone Pictures film. Directed and choreographed by Julie Herber; music direction, Charles Johnson; lighting, Carey Rausch; sound, Nick James; costumes, Elizabeth D. Reeves; props, Amanda Williams. With Andrew Lloyd Baughman, Genevieve James and others. About 2 hours 20 minutes.