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Village Theatre's newest production fails to find what it's trying to do. After being premiered at Village's First Stage as part of their Village Originals series, The Ark has made immense progress since then, but still has a long ways to go.
The story is very simple: it's the story of Noah and his ark. Written mainly by Christian pop star Michael McClean, the show is about as catchy as an *NSYNC song, which is either good or bad, depending how you look at it.
The itself fails to find what it is trying to do. The first half is a fun-loving family musical in the style of Joseph..., but the second half is trying to actually teach the audience about life and religion and the two don't mesh very well together. One distinct moment is Noah's wife's breakdown. She is cleaning clothes, finds hair from the animals in the water and starts crying. It is possible that the actress took the emotion too far, but the book still needs work.
The cast is almost perfect. Lisa Estridge-Gray provides just enough of her signature pizazz as the fiesty Egyptus. In other productions she has detracted from the main focus of the story, but she keeps herself a little bottled up, and it helps. Hugh Hastings is sincere and has a lovely singing voice, although is acting is a bit off-and-on, he gives us a wonderful Noah. Bobbi Kutoola is an absolute hoot as Eliza, Noah's wife and has the perfect sense humor at the appropriate places. The other stand out was Taryn Darr, who stays right up with Estridge-Gray. During the song "Beauty Queen," Taryn and Lisa give stellar turns as they try to keep up in step arobics with the bouncy and bubbly Tracy Coh. The only disappointement in the cast came from the lead male. Scott McClean (the composer's son) cannot either dance or sing, and acts about as well as a Pamela Anderson. When you cast Lisa Estridge-Gray in a show, you can't cast her counterpart any less vivacious and energetic as she is. She overpowers McClean in many parts of the show.
With a cast of 8, the show has an amazing production value. The set is stunning and makes Village's moderate stage look like a Broadway house. The show was made for RJ Tancioco and his brother Joseph Tancioco. Their bubbly orchestrations and music direction drives the show. It is also a typical Steve Tomkins show, and is tight and well choreographed as we have come to expect from Tomkins.
Without the issues with the book, the excessive "choir" numbers and with a different leading man, The Ark could be a very good show with a thriving future on Broadway. But until then, I'll just hum "heeeeeeey, eeh, yeh-eh, eeh, yeaaaaah... you must believe there are miracles..."
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