Theater Review (NYC): Something's Got Ahold of My Heart

Director Jonathan Walters and Portland, OR's Hand2Mouth theater company brought Erin Leddy's innovative dialogue-with-the-past My Mind is Like an Open Meadow to New York last summer. Their new show, Something's Got Ahold of My Heart, now at La Mama through Jan. 20, is, aside from its experimental nature and incorporation of music and dance, about as different from that earlier effort as can be – and, alas, not to its benefit.

Here, a cast of six appealing and energetic young performers (including Ms. Leddy) work hard and fast to act out a long series of vignettes on the theme of love and relationships, occasionally jazzed up by amusingly candied raunch. These aren't dramatic or comic scenes in the traditional sense; a pair of actors embodies each through dance, fight choreography, and other movement while a third performer narrates. With a bright soundtrack of classic pop hits mixed with effective original incidentals by Ash Black Bufflo, the show is bathed in music, even closing with three original songs presented by the whole cast in sparkly glam-rock style.

Unfortunately, it lacks structure and an artistically consistent guiding vision. This forces the cast to work uncomfortably hard to engage the audience; they're so visibly eager to please it's almost painful. That's what comes, I guess, of trying to make a real show out of a series of what feel more like acting-class exercises.

There are entertaining moments along the way, particularly in the first half (before one's patience wears out). In one sequence, two narrator/questioners writhe into a couple's circle interrogating them to no avail, climaxing with the eternal mystery, also to remain unanswered: "Why did you fall for him and not somebody else?" In another, a bout of athletic sex devolves into humor ("I'm so chafed!") while another, more intense couple clashes around the need for a "safe word."

Article Author: Jon Sobel

Jon Sobel is Co-Executive Editor of Blogcritics and lead editor of the Culture section. As a writer he contributes most often to Culture, where he reviews NYC theater; he also covers interesting music releases and writes a semi-regular review round-up of independent albums. …

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