'Ordinary People' Needs Some Prozac

Adapted by Seth Weinstein from the book by Judith Guest, "Ordinary People" is not an upbeat story. As a fully sung musical this becomes even more apparent--all the songs follow the same sad format, hardly leaving the audience whistling on its way out. There was a message and some talent on display during the show's two weekends at the Agassiz Theater, but extracting all of it from the monotonously sung dialogue was a challenge.

As the musical opens, Conrad Jarrett (Aaron Sompong) has just been released from a psychiatric hospital, where he has spent eight months for attempted suicide following his brother's tragic death in a boating accident. Confronted by worried parents and the prospect of assimilating back into school, Conrad realizes that it will not be easy to regain a normal life. Dr. Berger (Brett Conner), Conrad's psychologist, helps him deal with the tough times he encounters.

The first act is depressing, as we watch Mr. and Mrs. Jarrett (Elliot JohnMarks and Lisa Halliday) argue over the best way to deal with their son's nightmares and flashbacks. The orchestra handled the score well, but the tunes aren't particularly melodic or singable, so the action seems to drag. While some of the dialogue fits easily into a musical style, at times it comes across as forced or awkwardly phrased. The highlight of the act is "Christmas," a number sung by Conrad, his parents, and his grandparents. Dr. Berger also adds some comic relief: in response to Conrad's question about his nightmare, Berger answers that he doesn't believe in dreams. "Between keeping up with the Freuds and keeping up with the Jones, I end up alone."

In the second act things pick up a little and things move along quickly. Conrad begins to realize that other people have problems, too, and that he is not always to blame for his own. The choir director, played by Orin Johnson, lightens up his scenes. The music, while in the same style as the first act, does manage to throw in a few songs that aren't depressing, such as when Conrad asks out Jeanine Pratt (Sarah Baskin) in the song "I Have A Little Question." "It doesn't have to be a real date. We could fake it," he sings.

The actors were all convincing and had good voices, but many of them, especially the males, suffered from a lack of projection, so that some songs were lost to the audience. Sompong has mastered an air of anxiety and uncomfortableness, but his voice wasn't strong enough to express his talent to the entire audience. Similarly, Marks managed to seem genuinely upset when his wife left him, though the audience couldn't quite understand the words he was singing.

Halliday gave a great performance as Mrs. Jarrett, trying desperately to pull her life back together. Constantly wanting to run off with her husband to Spain or Portugal, she doesn't know how to deal with Conrad's return from the hospital. Halliday was one of the few in the cast whose voice really comes through. This was especially helpful in her duets with Marks. Susannah Hills, playing Conrad's friend from the hospital, had another strong voice, which unfortunately was only heard for two songs in the first act.

While the first act of "Ordinary People" is depressing, the second act builds the audience's spirits back up, so that by the end a glimmer of hope has actually broken through Conrad's darkness. Unlike his friend Karen, Conrad manages to survive. He sings that he has learned from the people he has met and there are "A lot of things I'd like to change, but I'll take what I can get." In the program, director Victor Chiu asks the audience to remember this as the musical's message: "This Hope. Have faith in it. Take it with you."