Cornelia Street review

Playwright Simon Stephens and indie-rocker Mark Eitzel of American Music Club previously collaborated on Marine Parade (2010) and Song from Far Away (2015). Now they join forces on a confounding new musical, directed by Neil Pepe. The piece flounders in its efforts to say something about New York City, and never finds depth in the voices of people struggling to make their way here.

It’s set around a fading West Village hang-out, possibly inspired by the now-closed Cornelia Street Café. Its characters exude a disillusioned nostalgia for New York of the past, perhaps as self-protection, as they cope with life in the city.

With rising rents pricing everyone out, the sleepy restaurant’s days are numbered. Chef Jacob (Norbert Leo Butz) is a single dad and a screw-up who pins his hopes on an old friend who might invest to save the cafe. His teenage daughter (Lena Pepe) is failing in school. His former step-daughter Misty (Gizel Jiménez) shows up out of the blue.

Cafe owner Marty (Kevyn Morrow), drug-dealer William (George Abud), Google employee John (Ben Rosenfield), free spirit Sarah (Mary Beth Peil), and waiter and would-be actor Philip (Esteban Andres Cruz) round out the denizens of this place, on its last legs. Despite the hard work of a talented cast, these characters are both over- and underdone. There are too many sketched-out details, but little sense of inner emotional life.

Continues...