Clik here to view.
When it premiered back in 2017, Min Kahng’s world-premiere musical at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, “The Four Immigrants,” was such a delight that his latest, “Happy Pleasant Valley: A Senior Sex Scandal Murder Mystery Musical,” also commissioned by and developed at TheatreWorks (in a co-production with Center Repertory Company in Walnut Creek), ought to have been a slam-dunk.
Indeed, it has everything the amusing title promises: a no-nonsense, randy septuagenarian (played by longtime pro Emily Kuroda) in a senior living community who’s suspected of murdering her paramours; her opportunistic Gen Z vlogger granddaughter, Jade (Sophie Oda, an emotionally authentic performer with a beautiful singing voice), who becomes enmeshed in the search for the true killer (and undergoes a major attitude adjustment along the way); and heartfelt songs.
Each of the supporting characters in Happy Pleasant Valley Senior Apartments has a distinctive role, complete with an individual surprising reveal at the end. Well cast by longtime TheatreWorks director Jeffrey Lo, they include brilliant comic actor Danny Scheie, who specializes in sly innuendos and interacting with the audience; Lucinda Hitchcock Cone, whose affectless delivery can make the blandest lines seem funny; Rinabeth Apostol, inventive in several roles; and more.
To his credit, Kahng, who wrote the book, music and lyrics, does not stint on four-letter words—yes, old people cuss—and smoothly weaves in gay and trans characters. The actors themselves largely avoid cartoony, age-related clichés.
Clik here to view.
But in many ways, Kahng falters.
The plot is long (the show runs two and a half hours with intermission) and too often silly, and by the end, you really won’t care who murdered whom and why.
The songs—except one, well performed by lanky Miller Liberatore as a smitten assistant to Jade —are not funny and tend to sound alike. A saving grace is the live band led by William Liberatore.
The choreography is disappointingly formulaic.
Although Kahng is aiming for raunchy humor, the text simply lacks true wit. OK, so elders like to canoodle; one resident is enamored of a squirrel; Grandma’s a surprisingly tough cookie, and a heretofore faithful husband finally comes out of the closet.
While the script labors to make each character hilariously eccentric, and the actors do their best with the words they’ve been given, it’s just not that funny.
Although Grandma apparently is meant to be the central character, the heart of the play is the transformation of influencer Jade, and that subplot feels more natural than the forced humor that surrounds it.
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and Center Repertory Company’s “Happy Pleasant Valley: A Senior Sex Scandal Murder Mystery Musical” continues through March 30 at Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. Tickets are $35 to $115 at theatreworks.org.
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