By Charlene Baldridge | Theater Review

In a city filled with musicals both new and old, occasionally a standout production emerges. The occasion is now and the musical is William Finn and James Lapine’s “A New Brain,” produced by Diversionary Theatre, directed by Kim Strassburger and featuring an outstanding ensemble of San Diego area actors, two of them actually married to one another — Anthony Methvin and Tom Zohar.

Zohar and Methvin — too long absent from the Diversionary stage — portray Gordon Michael Schwinn and Roger Delli-Bovi, respectively. Schwinn is a neurotic songwriter who collapses into a plate of pasta, declaring, “Something just isn’t right.” Delli-Bovi, his devoted lover, hovers lovingly when Gordon is hospitalized.

Other characters are Gordon’s agent and best friend, Rhoda, played by Megan Carmitchel; his mother, Mimi, played by Sandy Campbell; his boss, Mr. Bungee, gleefully played and sung by Jon Lorenz; a wily and wondrous Homeless Lady, portrayed by Tanika Baptiste; a Nice Nurse (Michael Parrott); a slightly spacy Doctor (Danny Campbell); the Hospital Minister (Stewart W. Calhoun); and in various roles, Katie Sapper.

The ensemble singing is thrilling and Michael Mizerany’s choreography has just the right touch. The tango ensemble is to die for.

Janie Prim is music director; Ron Logan, scenic designer; Beth Connelly, costume designer; Curtis Mueller, lighting designer; and Blair Nelson, sound designer. No microphones are needed and the sound is excellent, thanks.

Director Strassburger displays assiduous judgment, blending the depth and the frivolity of the piece, sweeping us from tears to raucous laughter in a heartbeat. Mimi’s “The Music Still Plays On” (accompanied on “air piano” by Zohar, an accomplished pianist, as Gordon), Mr. Bungee’s froggy antics, and Gordon and Roger’s aching love song, “An Invitation to Sleep in My Arms” are but a few examples. And then there is Baptiste, who knocks it out of the ballpark with “The Homeless Lady’s Revenge.”

The overriding sensibility is sincerity, the foundation of good musical comedy. The huge bonus is Strassburger’s talented company: Each has a moment in which to shine and display immense vocal beauty. Zohar, Methvin and Campbell create characters about whom we really care. The show is especially suitable for Diversionary, which here reassumes its stratospheric stride.

When “A New Brain” premiered in New York in 1998, New York Times critic Ben Brantley remarked on its “captivating eccentricity,” then decried it as a “private party.”

Perhaps it is, a paean to creativity and also to the kind of love that does not conform to what the larger society deems normal. In that sense, historically, the time has come for “A New Brain.”

Don’t even think of missing it.

At the time he wrote the show, Finn had just recovered from a similar, life-threatening brain event. Since 1998, he has written “Little Miss Sunshine,” premiered at La Jolla Playhouse, and “The 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” all proof that the muse survives getting a new brain.

— Charlene Baldridge has been writing about the arts since 1979. You can follow her blog at charlenebaldridge.com or reach her at [email protected].