Copy Editor Joe Westerfield has been going to the theater so you don’t have to. If you don’t want to, that is.
In some ways the new rock musical Attorney for the Damned, which is playing at the Kraine Theater in New York, invites comparisons to Law & Order, Silence of the Lambs and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. But the show, with book and lyrics by Denis Woychuk, doesn’t really work as a procedural; Hannibal Lechter would have it for appetizers; and there is a nary a transvestite to be seen anywhere, except maybe in the audience. That said, Attorney is fun.
The music, which comprises 90 percent of the show, is a tuneful and eclectic mix. It may not always move the plot along, but it makes the exposition easy to take.
The plot revolves around a defense attorney whose clients are criminally insane. Through no fault or much effort of her own, two clients are set free, and, as they say, mayhem ensues.
Attorney is staged as a rock musical, featuring an onstage band complete with backup singers, the Jurettes--though I swear I heard them introduced as the Tourettes. Either way, I laughed.
The play is Brechtian in the extreme with only a few interactions between characters. Most of those exchanges are awkward: The prosecutor makes too many disparaging references to the defense lawyer’s Native American heritage—a little goes a long way.Fortunately those scenes are brief, and the play never seems to take itself too seriously. In fact it’s at its best in the second half when events take some very weird turns.
The cast sings very well, which is good given the number of songs. Denny Blake, as psychotic Garrett Cooke, and Brian Ferrari, as the judge, stand out, as does Maria Dalbotten, as one of the victims, who does a nice job channeling Courtney Love.
It seems to be a good time for rock musicals, and while Attorney for the Damned may not be Passing Strange, it’s more than passable and pretty strange.
(Pictured: Foreground: Allison Johnson, the defense attorney; Behind: Juliana Smith, the prosecutor, Pat Mattingly, a criminal, and judge Brian Ferrari.)
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