First Date, Pursued By Bears, Chapel Off Chapel, Saturday September 10th 2016

First Date, Chapel Off Chapel Saturday September 10th 2016

"First Date" presented by Pursued By Bears at  Chapel Off Chapel, Saturday September 10th 2016

For those new to my blog I write about the holistic experience of attending the theatre. I buy my own tickets. So if you want a re-telling of the story please refer to the links for further information or for further insights.  Note, that I may provide different links for repeated main words or phrases.  I write for my memories of what I have seen, and is more of a stream of consciousness.

"First Date" is better suited to Chapel Off Chapel than the Broadway Longacre Theatre.  This show is a really good Off- Broadway show and it is obvious why it did not have a longer run on Broadway.

Our waiter spoke volumes with his opening announcement to turn off mobile phones etc.  He did not have to say anything other than showcase a mobile-phone-ringing sound effect and say "You know the drill".  Sadly three people did not heed this advice as we had to bear witness to two long mobile phones that rang out and the third phone was switched off quickly. I am sick of paying money for these "Twankers" to potentially spoil a night out.  "Turn them off!"

Production Design by Sarah Tulloch is one of the best aspects of this show.  Sarah has incorporated a working coffee bar into the design and audience members queue to purchase a beverage.  This is similar to the working bar design in "Once".  The cafe tables at the front of the stage were similar to the 2010-2011 Broadway revival of "Le Cage Aux Folles".  At least these tables provided a buffer and we could see the action as sadly too many directors stage shows at Chapel Off Chapel with the action right up to the front row and denying many audience members with a clear view of the action.

Sarah Tulloch has the band upstage on a raised area that silhouettes the main action.  My favourite aspect was the kitchen area where meals would be presented for the waiting staff to deliver to patrons.  If you looked closely the chef was the drummer wearing a chef's hat.  Only audience to the left of centre would have been able to see this ingenious touch.

The set was functional, fun and funky.  The set also emphasised the intimacy and the potential vulnerability of being in a public space of a restaurant/cafe on a first date. The doorway was used effectively and swung around for the final scene.

The costumes worked especially for the quick changes.  The waiter's apron was a fun effect.

The other highlight was the choreography by Joel Anderson who paid homage to many Broadway shows with his insightful teasers.  Some of the obvious moments included "Fiddler on the Roof" and  "A Chorus Line", while the use of fans paid homage to "Chicago".

The opening scene was sadly cringe-worthy and my partner told me how he shrunk in his seat hoping the show would improve.  The opening had the women in particular yelling their lyrics.  The vocal levels were uneven.  Thankfully the show did improve but sadly the sound quality only improved slightly.

To put it bluntly the sound quality was awful throughout the whole show.  I wanted to yell out "Don't touch the other actor's microphone" as we had to suffer the annoying  thuds and thumps and tapping of the poor microphone.   The sound would drop out on too many occasions to list here.

Mark Taylor  has done a good job directing and staging "First Date".  My favourite aspect as discussed earlier was that the audience could see the down stage action as we had the cafe tables that allowed a gap between the first row of raked seating and the stage.

Mark Taylor directed the actors to freeze during moments - so that the audience could understand we were hearing a character's inner voices.  This freezing device was used effectively throughout and sadly not during the mother's letter song where the four upstage were distracting with their actions and thus spoiled the emotional arc of this song.

The singing overall was very average.  There was a lot of flat singing or yelling.  The main exception was Rebecca Hetherington as Casey who sang consistently and confidently without pushing her voice.

Stephen Valeri may not have had the sweetest singing voice but he certainly made up for it with his convincing portrayal of five well defined characters.  Stephen Valeri was terrific in clearly differentiating his five characters with a single pose, gesture or vocal phrase.

Nicole Melloy provided clear characters especially as Grandma Ida and Lauren (Casey's sister).  Her robot moves were strong and clearly mechanical.

Danielle O'Malley played the Siri role well and distinguished her from the ex-girlfriend character.

The robot sequence fell flat as it was too long and laboured.  Danielle O'Malley's moves needed to be crisper and more mechanical.

Jordan Mahar played  Aaron with honesty and warmth.  Jordan Mahar had the requisite awkwardness and did not overplay this.  At times his singing was flat.

The Lighting Design by Brynn Cullen and his Associate Lighting Designer, Rob Sowinsky was the best lighting in a show I have seen in a long time.  The lighting was terrific as it punctuated the action and developed clear focus for the internal dialogue "thinking" scenes.

The programme was expensive at $10.  The front page has white writing in a very small font on a grey background.  Too hard to read.  Please put the year on your programmes.  It could be September 2-11 of any year!  Three full pages of advertisements in a sixteen page programme for ten bucks is a bit rich.  I would gladly pay $5.00 for this but it is not $10.00 quality. Thankfully a song list was included.

"First Date" provided lots of good laughs and the actors timed these well.  Though the diction at times was not clear.

The sound, singing and diction dragged this down to a 5/10 from what could have been a 7/10.