Thirteen multitalented millennials, an inspired director and choreographer, and one of the most tuneful and insightful scores in years make for musical theater magic in Neil Bartram and Brian Hill’s The Theory Of Relativity, now playing at NoHo’s Gray Studios.

Though the show’s concept (“A simple physics test question prompts a group of young people to consider their lives”) serves primarily as a pretext for eighty minutes of seemingly unconnected autobiographical songs inspired by some A Chorus Line-style recorded interviews, they are as smart and clever and diverse as contemporary songs get.

Bookending Bartram and Hill’s 2014 musical potpourri is Viktor Pacheco’s “Pi,” a three-part ditty that has a physics nerd anticipating a blind date with a single red rose in hand.

Jared Price proclaims his love for a girl with far too many felines in her flat in “I’m Allergic To Cats,” Mary Zastrow and Brittany Thornton trade places as alpha best friends in “The End Of The Line,” Kami Corwin and Luke Martinez compare each other’s (and each other’s parents’) “Great Expectations” for their future, and Wayne Remington suffers the slings and arrows of an apple-pie family gone sour in “Footprint.”

“Lipstick” has the mutually attracted Felicia Tassone and Martinez fantasizing about how best to make each other’s acquaintance on a busy downtown street.

 Fruit serves as a metaphor for two lonely boys (Cody Williams and Christian Araujo) who find they have more in common with each other than a preference for oranges in “Apples And Oranges.”

Thornton, Tassone, and Zastrow sing backup to Beth Redwood’s devastating recollection of a “Me & Ricky” relationship gone horribly bad., after which Andrea Velazquez pays tribute to the self-sacrificing mother who named her miraculous daughter Mira in “Promise Me This.”

As for Hope English, though her “Julie’s Song” appears at first to be nothing more than a declaration of joy at a marriage proposal, it packs a particularly rewarding surprise.

 Finally, Zastrow ties the entire cast of characters together with a spoken “Manicure,” leading into a full-cast celebration of interconnectedness with “Nothing Without You.”

Oh, and along the way, Thornton pops up to deliver a three-part monolog as a germaphobe confronted with the “Cake” her boyfriend has confectioned for her with his god-knows-where-they’ve-been hands.

Bartram’s music is so catchy, you may find yourself humming at least a few of his tunes on the way out, his lyrics capture to rhyming perfection the stories his and Hill’s interviewees had to tell, and Hill’s book adds spoken word to the mix while figuring out just how each The Theory Of Relativity character shares connections with the rest.

Integrating dance, movement, or a combination of both, director Timothy Jon Borquez and choreographer Anne-Marie Osgood have performers moving in ever-changing configurations, reacting as distinct individuals to what’s being sung, and doing bang-up work of it every step of the way.

(A particular treat is the a cappella “Relative Pitch,” in which a stageful of stools provide tribal percussion backup the production’s most adventurous number.)

 Not only do Araujo, Corwin, English, Martinez, Pacheco, Price, Redwood, Remington, Tassone, Thornton, Velazquez, Williams, and Zastrow prove themselves terrific singer-dancers, their diverse ethnicities, costumes, looks, and types ensure that each creates a distinctively memorable character, and when joining voices under Edward Archer’s expert vocal direction, they deliver some of the most glorious harmonies you’ll hear all year.

 Adding to the magic is Jesse Santos’s intricately conceived and executed lighting design and Andrew Brown’s pitch-perfect audio mix of prerecorded tracks and unamped voices.

The Theory Of Relativity is produced by Borquez for the Foothill Performing Arts Council. Jayline Prado is stage manager. Cynthia Cordon is assistant choreographer. Jonathan Redwood is audio operator and music coordinator. Michael Dumas is swing.

Like Jason Robert Brown’s Songs For A New World and John Bucchino’s It’s Only Life, Neil Bartram and Brian Hill’s The Theory Of Relativity bridges the gap between musical and musical revue to memorable effect.

That it focuses entirely on young people just starting out in life makes it one-of-a-kind among song cycles.

That its creators could hardly ask for a finer production than the one now playing at Gray Studios makes FPAC’s NoHo debut an October must-see.

Gray Studios, 5250 Vineland Ave., North Hollywood.
https://www.ticketor.com/thefpac

–Steven Stanley
October 14, 2018
Photos: Michael Dumas

Tags: Brian Hill, Foothill Performing Arts Council, Los Angeles Theater Review, Neil Bartram