Theatre Three’s ‘Lizzie the Rock Musical.’ (Photos by Jeffrey Schmidt)
Lizzie Borden has her own famous poem, but at Theatre Three, her story comes alive through showtunes perfectly timed for Halloween. Lizzie the Rock Musical centered on a cast of four women with Presley Duyck in the titular role. But as the cast belted out the show’s playlist of songs by creators Steven Cheslik-deMeyer, Tim Maner and Alan Stevens Hewitt, they also delivered a story of sisterhood and empowerment — just with murder involved.
Told primarily through songs, Lizzie’s tale breaks out of the gate with immediate power with rock ‘n’ roll vibes. We are introduced to of course Duyck as Lizzie along with Ja’Naye Flanagan playing Lizzie’s sister Emma, Lauren Urso Gray as her friend Alice and Lauren Le Blanc as the Borden family’s housekeeper. Through these perspectives do we get insight into Lizzie and her family that led to the infamous act.
Director Shyama Nithiananda brought an urgent pace to the show’s two acts that ramped up to the moment everyone was waiting for. For the second act, the show plateaued effectively to let the story unfold post all that axe-action. But that didn’t let up on the vibrant energy the cast was delivering along with the appropriately loud band led by Gary Adler and the imaginative designs by Jeffrey Schmidt (set), Aaron Johansen (lighting) and Noah Heller (sound). And Shahrzad Mazaher’s costuming was seriously a lesson in beautiful craftsmanship. All these elements delivered an ideal strident ambience while successfully telling Lizzie’s story.
Duyck’s performance was relentless. The role required astute conviction along with serious vocals and physicality. Duyck performed Lizzie as if her life depended on it. That astounding energy she brought was a mix of rebellion, sultriness, humor and strength. Despite the character’s problematic family, Duyck never gave her a sympathetic flair. Instead, we saw a perpetually empowered and confident woman who, ya know, made a couple of questionable choices.
While the story centered on Lizzie, Duyck was certainly part of a strong ensemble. Flanagan layered her role with saucy deliverance and strong comic timing. This marked her T3 debut but hopefully not her last as she had a distinct magnetic flair to onstage manner.
In contrast to the prior two, Le Blanc perhaps had the most fun role as the housekeeper Bridget. Her role served many purposes both for the characters and the audience and Le Blanc played all of it with just enough of a wink and nod that gave her some added camp, but nonetheless still served up a fleshed out character. Without the murderous intentions and house drama, Gray’s Alice stayed out of the fray and was thus the show’s most-hinged character. Gray’s performance was touching and tender in intimate scenes with Duyck and then compelling as her character discovered what was really going on.
The show required a whole lot of belting and the talents onstage were more than capable but at times, the songs did get muddled. The venue itself may have made it difficult for some of the tunes to come across clearly so some of the exposition would get lost. But the story never did thanks to an enthralling cast and band, both of which rocked the house yet also delivered a spellbinding tale filled with big axe energy.
Lizzie the Rock Musical runs through Oct. 29.
–Rich Lopez
