Blank Canvas rescues ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ from itself

 

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

 

“Little Miss Sunshine” – a wonderfully idiosyncratic 2006 Academy Award-winning indie film – has been turned into an ambitious but poorly conceived and poorly received musical by otherwise successful composer William Finn and writer James Lapine.   

 

The musical, which lasted just a month Off-Broadway in 2013, lacks the film’s defining melancholic eccentricity, its characters’ brooding deadpan presentation, and its co-directors’ affectionate touch.  It their place is a bland, often clunky musical comedy that attempts to translate a road trip to the spatial restrictions of the stage.

 

The issue to be addressed in the current production of “Little Miss Sunshine” is whether director Jonathan Kronenberger, musical director Patrick Wickliffe and their team can resuscitate this musical the way Blank Canvas Theatre did with the similarly mediocre and low-budgeted “Debbie Does Dallas,” “Psycho Beach Party” and “The Texas Chainsaw Musical” under artistic director Patrick Ciamacco’s supervision.

 

The answer is yes, albeit in bits and pieces. 

 

For more of this review, go to:  www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/