FringeNYC 2013: Bradley Cole

Review by Melanie N. Lee · August 16, 2013

The Internet is a great place for self-expression and other-connection.  It’s also a great place to lie—er, reinvent yourself.  Small, slender, shy, dorky Ian Maxwell pours all his suave intellect, sharp quips, and shrewd observations into a blog presumably penned by Bradley Cole, an urban fox whose faux fame gets out of hand.  The musical Bradley Cole—book and lyrics by Jason Young, music by Bomi Lee, directed and choreographed by Geoffrey Goldberg, musical direction by Ming Aldrich-Gan—skewers the contemporary social media and television star-making machinery, and teases our eternal longing to be seen, heard, known, and loved.

A rousing choral number starts the action.  Ian, in Captain America T-shirt, patterned pajama bottoms, and red booties, blogs away as his followers check their iPhones, singing, “Listen to me, look at me, love me!”  Ian’s handsome, muscle-bound roommate and childhood friend Ben is the beefy “Cupcake Boy” on The Della Rae Show, a cable cooking program whose African-American southern diva host is, on-camera, a cross between Oprah Winfrey and Paula Deen, and off-camera, an off-with-her-head steamroller.  Della complains that her apron, fringed with red and yellow frills, makes her look like “Elmo and Big Bird’s love child!” Her assistant Stacy, who desires her own show although she can’t cook for beans either, hates her boss, but loves Bradley Cole.  Ben badgers Ian into attending a studio party.  Stacy is impressed with Ian’s intellect, which irks Ben, who’s on the make for Stacy.  Although flattered by Stacy’s attention, Ian is secretly, repressively, in love with Ben…

The plot’s spine is somewhat predictable: one lie leads to another which leads to one exposure leading to another.  Yet the play is enlivened with clever songs (with plenty of rhyming couplets), peppered with quick puns and grammatical corrections (“…for all intensive purposes,” says Ben.  “For all intents and purposes!” counters Ian).  Especially, Bradley Cole is enriched with contemporary issues such as media hype which elevates and then castigates its idols, desire for human connection lost in an electronic maze, and shame and confusion over same-sex attraction.

Remy Germinario is excellent as Ian, a cross between Woody Allen and Harry Potter.   (My brother, who was with me, mentioned Peter Parker, Spider-Man’s alter ego).  Germinario handles well the range of Ian’s mental gymnastics and emotional jumbles.  Justin Flexen shows a sensitive, sensible side under Ben’s dumb façade of, for example, pronouncing the abbreviation of teaspoon as “tisp”.  Although I was somewhat bothered by the sassy stereotype of Della Rae, L. Celeste Weathers carries this off and performs impressively.  Jeannine Frumess does a good job as Stacy, who goes beyond a mere sweet love interest to an ambitious backbiter.  The Ensemble members—Blaire Baker, Kimberly Chatterjee, Jeffrey Funaro, Tauren Hagans, James Parks, and Zilong Pu—have precious moments as well, as treacherous TV producers, eager bloggers, and other characters.  

Set/Costume Designer Nickey Frankel creates smart costume choices, among them matching TV show aprons and a Robin the Boy Wonder T-shirt, appropriately underlining the action.  Two backdrop screens of swirling rectangular color reflect the themes of our need to become colorful and connected, yet ending up squarish.

Bradley Cole is a satire fit for the media-saturated 21st century, full of good songs, good dancing, and funny, provocative characters.  I think this could run Off-Broadway.