E=MC²

If the life of Albert Einstein seems rather unlikely subject matter for a musical, at the very least the scientist who gave us the Theory of Relativity deserves better than E=MC², the well-intentioned musical muddle now guesting at Glendale’s Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center.

To begin with, there’s nothing at all imaginative or innovative about Karen Soroca and Janet Marie’s approach to telling Einstein’s life or about Elaine “E.E.” Moe’s direction for that matter.

Instead, Soroca and Marie’s “libretto” falls back on the tired trope of having Older Albert (Randy Crenshaw) narrate his life story while observing from the sidelines as Younger(ish) Albert (Christopher M. Allport) heads off to university, meets first wife Mileva Marić (Mia Michaud), experiences marital woes, comes up with E=MC², wins the Nobel prize, and says a permanent goodbye to a Germany now run by the Nazis.

Each of these events is accompanied by a musical number, some jaunty (“What To Do With Albert?” “Albert Einstein Is A Genius.”), some romantic (“Never Far From My Heart”), at least one of them downright ridiculous, i.e., “The Quantum Leap” seems like something Max Bialystock might have come up with, and the less said about Soroca and Marie’s corny lyrics, the better, though here’s a particularly cringeworthy example: “He can create quite a ruckus, and sometimes he’s a pain in the tuchus.”

And if Act One is about as by-the-numbers as a bio-musical can get, Act Two turns into nothing more than a variety show-style series of song-and/or-dance numbers, from Einstein’s love letter to his violin “Lina” (as personified by ballerina Bryn Graham McRee), to the barbershop harmonies of “Hail Princeton!” to Wife #2 Elsa Lowenthal’s (Kristin Towers Rowles) “Second To the Universe,” to a bunch of newly naturalized U.S. citizens’ rah-rah patriotic “I Love Americans,” to the gospel-style anti-lynching ballad “Let’s Keep Going ‘til We All Get There!” performed by none other than Broadway/civil rights icon Paul Robeson (Michael Dawson Connor), to a Fiddleresque salute to the then new nation of Israel, to (most egregious of all) a duet between Albert and his pet parrot Bibo (squawked by Ashlee Grubbs in tropical bird drag).

Soroca and Allocca’s melodies are catchy if derivative, and about the best I can say about the former’s choreography (McRee is assistant choreographer) is that it’s eclectic, which is to say a mishmash of styles that occasionally suit the storytelling but more often than not do not.

The acting being done by a clearly committed cast is about as good as can be expected given Soroca and Allocca’s stilted dialog spoken in varying degrees of Cherman akzents straight out of Hogan’s Heroes.

Vocally, at least, the above-mentioned performers do excel under multitasker Soroca’s music direction as do Jennifer Bennett, Eugene Boyd, Brigit Comeau, Max Pruett, Christopher Reilly, Jeff Sable, Susan Soriano, Benjamin Van Diepen, and Tom Whalen in assorted cameos.

Still, if no expense has been spared in divvying up a whopping ten Equity contracts amongst a cast of sixteen (not to mention the production’s five-piece orchestra conducted by Dr. James Lent on piano), the opposite appears true where production design is concerned, the entire enterprise taking place on a virtually bare stage backed by some rudimentary scene-setting projections.

On the plus side, Wise Woman Musical Theatre Group has brought on board François-Pierre Couture as lighting designer and Kimbery DeShazo as costumer. (The less said about the women’s wigs or the plastic baby doll we’re supposed to think is a living, breathing infant, the better.)

Unsuited as the “the Extraordinary Life of Albert Einstein” may be to the genre that in recent years has given us such ground-breakers as Hamilton and Hadestown, creative geniuses like the former’s Lin Manuel Miranda or the latter’s Anaïs Mitchell might actually have come up with an Einstein: The Musical worth seeing on the Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center stage.

E=MC² is unfortunately not that show.

Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center, 110 East Broadway, Glendale. Through July 26. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:00. Sundays at 3:00.
www.einsteinthemusical.com

–Steven Stanley
July 3, 2026

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

 

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