EDGES


The Chance Theater Orange County Premiere of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s Edges proves a terrific talent showcase for a quartet of upcoming musical theater stars and the long-awaited chance for audiences to rediscover the thrill of live, in-person performances at the Chance.

Written ten years before Pasek & Paul’s Dear Evan Hansen took Broadway by storm (and won them a Best Score Tony the same year they won the Oscar as La La Land lyricists), Edges’ 15 songs reveal the incipient talents of two 19-year-old college students who found themselves facing an unknown future with a mixture of unease, confusion, and (ultimately) hope.

Like Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for A New World and Ryan Scott Oliver’s 35MM: A Musical Exposition, Pasek & Paul’s Edges is made up of a series of thematically connected songs, those themes including such life-changers as self-discovery, commitment, and love.

In “I Hmm You,” a couple carefully avoid saying the L word until there’s no other way to express their “hmm.” “Girl With Dreams” has a fast food worker employee revealing much bigger plans than working for minimum wage at Pizza Hut. In “In Short,” a young woman expresses no greater wish for her ex than this: “I hope you die.” “Ready To Be Loved” has a couple finally admitting their willingness to commit to a future together.  And these are just four of a diverse sixteen songs in all.

 Still, without a linear (or even non-linear) storyline, a song cycle like Edges can be prove challenging for both performers and audiences alike.

Fortunately for Chance Theater regulars and first-timers, Elizabeth Curtin, Jewell Holloway, Tyler Marshall, and Sarah Pierce have the charisma, the voices, and acting chops to pull it off.

Director James Michael McHale makes ever inventive use of scenic designer Bradley Kaye’s abstract multi-level set while encouraging his four stars to dig deep into the mini-story each song has to tell, whether comedic, or romantic, or humorous, or somewhere in between. And McHale earns added snaps for some inspired gender flips, like changing “Boy With Dreams” to “Girl With Dreams,” or making “I Hmm You” a same-sex hmm song.

It helps enormously, too, to have the gifted Robyn Manion doing double duty as musical director- keyboardist (and to have whiz musicians Jimmy Beall and Jorge Zuniga by her side), and with Chris Henrriquez’s gorgeous lighting, Christina Perez’s character-evoking costumes, Bebe Herrera’s just-right props, and Hunter Moody’s crystal clear sound design completing the mix, Edges is yet another example of why no Orange County intimate theater can top the Chance for overall excellence.

Nicole Schlitt is stage manager. Samuel Moss is sound engineer.

Though younger audiences may connect more immediately to Edges’ coming-of-age themes, anyone who’s ever been in their late teens and early twenties will find much to relate to (and much to celebrate) as Chance Theater re-opens its doors.

Chance Theater, 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills.
www.chancetheater.com

–Steven Stanley
July 18, 2021
Photos: Doug Catiller/True Image Studio

 

 

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