Maria Maria
(© Joa Musical Company)
It’s fascinating to observe the ways in which Western culture is consumed by others and then regurgitated back at us. Consider Maria Maria, the pop musical based on the story of Mary Magdalene, now playing at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College. Seeing Maria Maria is like watching a contemporary Broadway musical in a funhouse mirror. You’ll recognize what you’re seeing but, oh, the distortions!
It doesn’t matter to us that Judas plays virtually no part in the fall of Jesus in this telling of the story; it’s Mary, a.k.a. Maria, who takes the fall here. Offered the opportunity to leave Jerusalem and go to Rome in exchange for luring Jesus into a compromising situation, she jumps at the chance but, instead, falls under his spell. When Jesus does innocently sleep in her house, all hell breaks loose. And you know what happens next.
The show doesn’t rise or fall on its story, but it does fall on its score. The music is generic and undistinguished, except insofar as it sounds like Jesus Christ Superstar. Most of the pop-style tunes are repetitious and the lyrics aren’t very good, although something may have been lost in translation. (The show is sung in Korean, with English supertitles.) That said, we can’t fault the talented singers — and there are some truly amazing voices in this production. As Maria, Hyo Sung Kang soars through her songs. Bock Hee Yoon just about steals the show when, as a blind woman who’s given sight by Jesus, she sings “What It Means to See.” Sang Woo Park, as Jesus, also displays a powerhouse voice. Unfortunately, there isn’t much credible acting from the leading players or any of the other folks in the cast.
Moreover, it seems that the creators of this biblical pop epic were attracted to every excess in the musical theater lexicon. When Mary Magdalene is presented as a “bad” girl, she’s dressed like a Las Vegas showgirl, complete with red strips of cloth dangling from her sexy, clinging outfit. Still, the costumes are at least fun to look at in their glitzy excess. Speaking of Las Vegas, the choreography is so cheesy that you ought to get crackers with your program. Director Cheon Mo Seong may have modeled Maria Maria after some previous Broadway musicals; unfortunately, he followed the bad examples of the Great White Way straight down the garden path.
