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This Is Not A Drill
The Ensemble (Photo: Carol Rosegg)
This Is Not A Drill
By Julia Polinsky
This Is Not A Drill, now at the York Theatre, offers a pleasant enough way to pass a couple of hours in the theater. If there are no surprises, then also there's something to be said about smooth sailing and just enjoying the show.
The story of This Is Not A Drill follows 3 tourist couples on vacation in Hawai'i in 2018: one single woman whose husband bailed at the last minute; and the staff of the resort, managed by the appalling Madeline (Marianne Tatum), as culturally insensitive as they come.
The delightful Tony (Matthew Curiano) and workaholic Chris (Chris Doubet),a gay couple who have just been rejected as adoptive parents of a foster child they loved, get a terrific song, "Cincinnati Boys,". Derek and Sophie (Gary Edwards, Aurelia Williams) sing one of the best songs in the score, "Start All Over," about their marital woes. Derek wears all kinds of heart-monitor hardware and they're borderline estranged over his homophobic reaction to his son's coming out. Please note the emphasis on something wrong with the heart.
Gary Edwards, Aurelia Williams (Photo: Carol Rosegg)
Then we meet Leilani (Cáitlín Burke) and Kaleo (Kelvin Moon Loh), who work at the resort, and have their own issues with Ikaika (Sam Poon), their rebellious son, who wants to play his own music rather than the fake-Island crap forced on them by hotel management. (He has a point; lyrics to "Land of Aloha" include such moments as "Ring of fire as a crown/Azure waters dancing 'round/Archipelago profound," etc. and don't miss the line in another staff song that sings of getting ". Sunburned in your crack.")
Finally, we get the full impact of our singleton, Jessica, (Felicia Finley), a woman in mid-life, and a character clearly based on the author of the show, Holly Doubet. (Doubet was in Hawai'i in 2018 for the incident that moves the story.) Jessica's husband, the rotter, is cheating on her and refuses to come on this magical Hawai'ian vacation at the last minute, so she goes alone, questioning her life choices and seeking meaning in the South Pacific.
Jessica Finley and the Ensemble (Photo: Carol Rosegg)
About that important incident: at one point, an anonymous government employee (Lukas Poost, in an over-the-top performance) who monitors the skies for problems gets an alert that there's an incoming missile. He dithers, briefly, but pushes The Button, and all the cell phones on stage get that fateful alert: This Is Not A Drill. A missile really is inbound, targeted basically right on top of them.
Predictably, people panic. They get lost and they wander around, get separated, manage to find an air raid shelter, where they discover what's really important: family, love, and self-fulfilment. Turns out it really was a drill, and therein lies the problem. We, the audience, know this. It robs the show of any plot tension, so we're left admiring the score, performances, direction (Gabriel Barre), scenic design (Edward Pierce) and lovely tropical-colored lighting design from Alan C. Edwards.
The songs (music and lyrics by Holly Doubet, Kathy Babylon, John Vester) are mostly tuneful enough but not memorable. Jessica gets the 11 o'clock number, "Waving Goodbye." Or maybe Tony and Chris get it, right after hers: "Somebody Somewhere." The rousing finale is a lovely warm fuzzy last song, and the ensemble and the truly superb band (music director David John Madore) do a great job of making a happy ending sound and feel good.
This Is Not A Drill Theatre at St. Jeans 150 E. 76th St Through October 11
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