Curtain Up
Written By: Miriam Colin

Who needs a book when you have twenty songs with smart character defining, story telling lyrics? Adam Gwon, winner of the Fred Ebb Award for Excellence in Musical Theater Songwriting, is cetainly a talent worth watching. However, a book writer could have kept his four character musical saga from coming off as too pat and, well, ordinary rather than extraordinary.

Following the stories of four young adults living un-extraordinary lives in New York, in a musical that pretty much fits the sung-through genre and with a single piano orchestra (expertly played by Vadim Feichtner) isn't exactly something to send crowds rushing to the box office. But that's not a problem here since it doesn't take crowds to fill the Roundabout's 62-seat Black Box Theater created to introduce and cultivate playwrights, and now, composer-lyricists. The intimacy of this space affords every audience members a prime seat and that rate pleasure: hearing songs without amplification.

Unsurprisingly, the New Yorkers Gwon has concocted to tell his story all have problems. For starters we have Warren (Jared Gertner), who's a gay, lonely and something of a nonentity. When we meet him, he's carrying on the work of a jailed graffity artist (pray painting homilies all over the city) by handing out printed versions of those sayings to passersby, who pay no more attention to his handouts than they would to any announcements of bargains and events. This unsuccessful endeavor highlights his sense of loneliness and alienation. Warren's story gets more interesting through a lost notebook that connects him with Deb (Kate Wetherhead), an NYU graduate student. Wethead is delightfully confused about everything from the subject of her thesis or whether to stay in New York.

The other characters, Jason and Claire (musical theater veterans Hunter Foster and Lisa Brescia), are a couple whose relationship is not doing well despite (or because?) their having just moved in together. They get two of the show's best songs, "Let Things Go", and "I'll Be Here."

As for the music generally, the lyrics are quite witty and don't strain to land their rhymes. The melodies are less memorable but that may be because they just keep coming on which tends to weaken the overall impact. As with any musical, the tunes might resonate more with repeated listening.

The somewhat bland and archetypical underpinnings notwithstanding, the excellent cast and attractive staging makes this a pleasantly enjoyable 80 minutes. Director Marc Bruno does manage to bring out what's best about this little show, its flavor of the anonymity of a huge city like New York which nevertheless allows strangers to connect and affect each other shades of the ever popular anecdotes in The New York Times "Metropolitan Diary" column.

Like The Last Five Years, by Jason Robert Brown (whose work Gwon is likely to bring to mind), Ordinary Daysis likely to have its share of other production. In fact, while this is the first musical for the Underground theater, it's already been staged at Britain's Finborough Theatre and elsewhere in this country. The $20 ticket policy for these Roundabout productions also makes it eligible for Curtainup's piggy bank icon to flag up live theater bargains.

Ordinary Days
Music & Lyrics by Adam Gwon
Directed by Marc Bruni

Cast: Lisa Brescia (Claire), Jared Gertner (Warren), Hunter Foster (Jason), Kate Wetherhead (Deb)
From 10/02/09; opening 10/25/09; closing 12/13/09
Tuesday through Sunday evenings at 7 PM with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 1:30 PM.
Music Director/pianist: Vadim Feichtner
Sets: Lee Savage
Costumes: Lisa Zinni
Lights: Jeff Croiter
Sound: Danny Erdberg
Orchestrations:. Andy Einhorn
Running Time: 8o minutes, no intermission
Roundabout Theatre Company Black Box Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center 111 West 46th Street
Tickets $20.
Reviewed by Miriam Colin October 24th

Backstage
Written By: Erik Haagensen , October 26, 2009

Before the first song of Adam Gwon's "Ordinary Days" has ended, you're aware you're in the hands of a talented composer-lyricist with an unusually fine command of craft. Discovering a worthy new writer is always exciting, and you lean hungrily forward, eager for what's to come. How I wish I could report that "Ordinary Days" is a small gem of a musical. Unfortunately, as song follows song in this 75-minute, largely dialogue-free four-person show, the narrow musical palette, small emotional stakes, and thin characters ultimately sabotage the proceedings. Out of context, the individual songs are undoubtedly impressive; strung together, they diminish each other.

Tellingly, there is no book-writing credit. "Ordinary Days" falters in its weak story of two very different couples in today's New York City. Gay 20-something Warren housesits for a jailed downtown avant-garde artist who paints pithy slogans as graffiti throughout the city. Warren appropriates those slogans, writing them on slips of colored paper that he then tries to distribute to pedestrians, with few takers. One is 20-something Deb, a highly strung, intense grad student writing a thesis on Virginia Woolf. But they don't really meet until Deb loses all her thesis notes in Union Square and Warren finds them. Meanwhile, 30-something Claire is having trouble making room in her apartment for her boyfriend, 30-something Jason, who is at last moving in. It's immediately apparent that this is a decision Claire is already regretting, but she gives Jason no reason as to why she resists letting their relationship move forward. A sequence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art mingles the couples, with Deb meeting Warren there to retrieve her notes, and Claire and Jason arriving on an outing intended to rejuvenate their relationship. But the actions of each couple don't affect the other until a preposterous epiphany at the show's climax, which is followed by an equally preposterous deus ex machina in which we suddenly discover what has been keeping Claire from moving on with her life. Characters make unbelievable about-faces, and all ends with their happy realization that being ordinary can be beautiful.

Gwon is fortunate to have such a fine cast to deliver his show. Jared Gertner is sweet and lovably eccentric as Warren, who could easily come off as hopelessly annoying. As Deb, Kate Wetherhead is spiky and amusing, delivering some of Gwon's wittiest lyrics with rapierlike aplomb. Lisa Brescia excels at suggesting Claire's unexplained disaffectedness without alienating the audience. As Jason, Hunter Foster brings the force of his personality to another contemporary urban cipher and makes the character as interesting as he can. All four sing powerfully, and it is a pleasure to hear the unamplified results under Vadim Feichtner's precise musical direction in the intimate Roundabout Black Box space.

Director Marc Bruni's staging is simple and swift on Lee Savage's nearly bare stage backed by stacks of changing colored-light boxes. Jeff Croiter illuminates it cleanly, and Lisa Zinni's contemporary costumes fill the bill just fine.

Gwon has written several other shows and has more in the pipeline, including a commission from Washington, D.C.'s Signature Theatre. Should any of them get on in New York City, I'll be the first to be in line. He's got talent. But that only takes you so far, and in the case of "Ordinary Days," it isn't far enough.

Curtain Up
Written By: Miriam Collin , April 17, 1970

Who needs a book when you have twenty songs with smart character defining, story telling lyrics? Adam Gwon, winner of the Fred Ebb Award for Excellence in Musical Theater Songwriting, is cetainly a talent worth watching. However, a book writer could have kept his four character musical saga from coming off as too pat and, well. . .ordinary rather than extraordinary. Following the stories of four young adults living un-extraordinary lives in New York, in a musical that pretty much fits the sung-through genre and with a single piano orchestra (expertly played by Vadim Feichtner) isn't exactly something to send crowds rushing to the box office. But that's not a problem here since it doesn't take crowds to fill the Roundabout's 62-seat Black Box Theater created to introduce and cultivate playwrights, and now, composer-lyricists. The intimacy of this space affords every audience members a prime seat and that rate pleasure: hearing songs without amplification. Unsurprisingly, the New Yorkers Gwon has concocted to tell his story all have problems. For starters we have Warren (Jared Gertner), who's a gay, lonely and something of a nonentity. When we meet him, he's carrying on the work of a jailed graffity artist (pray painting homilies all over the city) by handing out printed versions of those sayings to passersby, who pay no more attention to his handouts than they would to any announcements of bargains and events. This unsuccessful endeavor highlights his sense of loneliness and alienation. Warren's story gets more interesting through a lost notebook that connects him with Deb (Kate Wetherhead), an NYU graduate student. Wethead is delightfully confused about everything from the subject of her thesis or whether to stay in New York. The other characters, Jason and Claire (musical theater veterans Hunter Foster and Lisa Brescia), are a couple whose relationship is not doing well despite (or because?) their having just moved in together. They get two of the show's best songs, 'Let Things Go', and 'I'll Be Here.' As for the music generally, the lyrics are quite witty and don't strain to land their rhymes. The melodies are less memorable but that may be because they just keep coming on which tends to weaken the overall impact. As with any musical, the tunes might resonate more with repeated listening. The somewhat bland and archetypical underpinnings notwithstanding, the excellent cast and attractive staging makes this a pleasantly enjoyable 80 minutes. Director Marc Bruno does manage to bring out what's best about this little show, its flavor of the anonymity of a huge city like New York which nevertheless allows strangers to connect and affect each other — shades of the ever popular anecdotes in The New York Times 'Metropolitan Diary' column. Like The Last Five Years, by Jason Robert Brown (whose work Gwon is likely to bring to mind), Ordinary Daysis likely to have its share of other production. In fact, while this is the first musical for the Underground theater, it's already been staged at Britain's Finborough Theatre and elsewhere in this country. The $20 ticket policy for these Roundabout productions also makes it eligible for Curtainup's piggy bank icon to flag up live theater bargains. Ordinary Days Music & Lyrics by Adam Gwon Directed by Marc Bruni ________________________________________ Cast: Lisa Brescia (Claire), Jared Gertner (Warren), Hunter Foster (Jason), Kate Wetherhead (Deb) Music Director/pianist: Vadim Feichtner Sets: Lee Savage Costumes: Lisa Zinni Lights: Jeff Croiter Sound: Danny Erdberg Orchestrations:. Andy Einhorn Running Time: 80 minutes, no intermission Reviewed by Miriam Colin October 24th

Backstage
Written By: Erik Haagensen , April 29, 1970

Roundabout Theatre Company at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre/Black Box Theatre as part of Roundabout Underground Reviewed by Erik Haagensen OCTOBER 26, 2009 Before the first song of Adam Gwon's 'Ordinary Days' has ended, you're aware you're in the hands of a talented composer-lyricist with an unusually fine command of craft. Discovering a worthy new writer is always exciting, and you lean hungrily forward, eager for what's to come. How I wish I could report that 'Ordinary Days' is a small gem of a musical. Unfortunately, as song follows song in this 75-minute, largely dialogue-free four-person show, the narrow musical palette, small emotional stakes, and thin characters ultimately sabotage the proceedings. Out of context, the individual songs are undoubtedly impressive; strung together, they diminish each other. Tellingly, there is no book-writing credit. 'Ordinary Days' falters in its weak story of two very different couples in today's New York City. Gay 20-something Warren housesits for a jailed downtown avant-garde artist who paints pithy slogans as graffiti throughout the city. Warren appropriates those slogans, writing them on slips of colored paper that he then tries to distribute to pedestrians, with few takers. One is 20-something Deb, a highly strung, intense grad student writing a thesis on Virginia Woolf. But they don't really meet until Deb loses all her thesis notes in Union Square and Warren finds them. Meanwhile, 30-something Claire is having trouble making room in her apartment for her boyfriend, 30-something Jason, who is at last moving in. It's immediately apparent that this is a decision Claire is already regretting, but she gives Jason no reason as to why she resists letting their relationship move forward. A sequence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art mingles the couples, with Deb meeting Warren there to retrieve her notes, and Claire and Jason arriving on an outing intended to rejuvenate their relationship. But the actions of each couple don't affect the other until a preposterous epiphany at the show's climax, which is followed by an equally preposterous deus ex machina in which we suddenly discover what has been keeping Claire from moving on with her life. Characters make unbelievable about-faces, and all ends with their happy realization that being ordinary can be beautiful. Gwon is fortunate to have such a fine cast to deliver his show. Jared Gertner is sweet and lovably eccentric as Warren, who could easily come off as hopelessly annoying. As Deb, Kate Wetherhead is spiky and amusing, delivering some of Gwon's wittiest lyrics with rapierlike aplomb. Lisa Brescia excels at suggesting Claire's unexplained disaffectedness without alienating the audience. As Jason, Hunter Foster brings the force of his personality to another contemporary urban cipher and makes the character as interesting as he can. All four sing powerfully, and it is a pleasure to hear the unamplified results under Vadim Feichtner's precise musical direction in the intimate Roundabout Black Box space. Director Marc Bruni's staging is simple and swift on Lee Savage's nearly bare stage backed by stacks of changing colored-light boxes. Jeff Croiter illuminates it cleanly, and Lisa Zinni's contemporary costumes fill the bill just fine. Gwon has written several other shows and has more in the pipeline, including a commission from Washington, D.C.'s Signature Theatre. Should any of them get on in New York City, I'll be the first to be in line. He's got talent. But that only takes you so far, and in the case of 'Ordinary Days,' it isn't far enough.

Backstage
Written By: Erik Haagensen , April 29, 1970

Roundabout Theatre Company at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre/Black Box Theatre as part of Roundabout Underground Reviewed by Erik Haagensen OCTOBER 26, 2009 Before the first song of Adam Gwon's 'Ordinary Days' has ended, you're aware you're in the hands of a talented composer-lyricist with an unusually fine command of craft. Discovering a worthy new writer is always exciting, and you lean hungrily forward, eager for what's to come. How I wish I could report that 'Ordinary Days' is a small gem of a musical. Unfortunately, as song follows song in this 75-minute, largely dialogue-free four-person show, the narrow musical palette, small emotional stakes, and thin characters ultimately sabotage the proceedings. Out of context, the individual songs are undoubtedly impressive; strung together, they diminish each other. Tellingly, there is no book-writing credit. 'Ordinary Days' falters in its weak story of two very different couples in today's New York City. Gay 20-something Warren housesits for a jailed downtown avant-garde artist who paints pithy slogans as graffiti throughout the city. Warren appropriates those slogans, writing them on slips of colored paper that he then tries to distribute to pedestrians, with few takers. One is 20-something Deb, a highly strung, intense grad student writing a thesis on Virginia Woolf. But they don't really meet until Deb loses all her thesis notes in Union Square and Warren finds them. Meanwhile, 30-something Claire is having trouble making room in her apartment for her boyfriend, 30-something Jason, who is at last moving in. It's immediately apparent that this is a decision Claire is already regretting, but she gives Jason no reason as to why she resists letting their relationship move forward. A sequence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art mingles the couples, with Deb meeting Warren there to retrieve her notes, and Claire and Jason arriving on an outing intended to rejuvenate their relationship. But the actions of each couple don't affect the other until a preposterous epiphany at the show's climax, which is followed by an equally preposterous deus ex machina in which we suddenly discover what has been keeping Claire from moving on with her life. Characters make unbelievable about-faces, and all ends with their happy realization that being ordinary can be beautiful. Gwon is fortunate to have such a fine cast to deliver his show. Jared Gertner is sweet and lovably eccentric as Warren, who could easily come off as hopelessly annoying. As Deb, Kate Wetherhead is spiky and amusing, delivering some of Gwon's wittiest lyrics with rapierlike aplomb. Lisa Brescia excels at suggesting Claire's unexplained disaffectedness without alienating the audience. As Jason, Hunter Foster brings the force of his personality to another contemporary urban cipher and makes the character as interesting as he can. All four sing powerfully, and it is a pleasure to hear the unamplified results under Vadim Feichtner's precise musical direction in the intimate Roundabout Black Box space. Director Marc Bruni's staging is simple and swift on Lee Savage's nearly bare stage backed by stacks of changing colored-light boxes. Jeff Croiter illuminates it cleanly, and Lisa Zinni's contemporary costumes fill the bill just fine. Gwon has written several other shows and has more in the pipeline, including a commission from Washington, D.C.'s Signature Theatre. Should any of them get on in New York City, I'll be the first to be in line. He's got talent. But that only takes you so far, and in the case of 'Ordinary Days,' it isn't far enough.