Charlene Baldridge | Theater Review

“Bare: A Pop Opera,” playing at Diversionary Theatre through August 3, is quite a surprise. One might expect a show with such a title, playing in a GLBT theater, to focus on nudity. It does not.

Neither is the piece new. It premiered in Los Angeles in 2000, had an off-Broadway run in 2003, and has by now played all over the country and even abroad in this original version and in a subsequently reworked and retitled version titled “Bare” or “Bare the Musical” (2013). The show currently presented at Diversionary is the original, with book by Jon Hartmere and Damon Intrabartolo, and rather indistinctive music by Intrabartolo and clever to clunky lyrics by Hartmere.

“Bare: A Pop Opera” presents teenage angst as it collides with proscribed religion. It is interlaced with a Catholic boarding school production of Romeo and Juliet (note: The meant-to-be-revelatory Queen Mab interpolation does not work.)

A sense of tragedy hangs over the piece from the start, as roommates, longtime friends and lovers Peter (Dylan Mulvaney) and Jason (Charlie Gange) struggle with their closeted relationship, their sincere faith and religious implications. The two sing well together and have reasonable chemistry, challenged by their prolonged relationship/identity argument. Both characters look for help and understanding and both are rebuked, Peter by his mother’s (excellent Rae K. Henderson) wish not to know, and Jason, by the school’s priest (golden voiced Charles W. Patmon, Jr.).

In the school Shakespeare production, Peter is cast as Tybalt and Jason as Romeo. Cast as Juliet, the promiscuous Ivy (Katie Sapper) throws herself at Jason, who is extremely popular with the girls and passes himself off as a stud and ladies man to cover up the truth. Ivy is beloved of the jealous Matt (Mitchell Connelly).

One seldom sees better-drawn, better-played female characters than Peter’s overweight, clueless sister, Nadia (wonderfully played and sung by Samantha Vesco, who gets a lot of mileage out of “Plain Jane Fatass”), and the canny Sister Chantelle (Kiani Nelson, “God Don’t Make No Trash”), who is centerpiece of a show-stopping nuns’ trio.

The original production needs lots of cutting and shaping, apparently attempted in the reworking, but it is still a surprisingly affecting piece, having sprung from the same milieu as the later and more effective “Spring Awakening,” but without Duncan Sheik’s driving rock score and Steven Sater’s searing book, based on Frank Wedekind’s original play.

Nonetheless, Diversionary Theatre, its artistic team and its supporters deserve a lot of credit for daring to produce “Bare: a Pop Opera.” Michael Mizerany is choreographer and Noah Longton, the director. Amazingly, there are four musicians in a high, tower-sequestered orchestra “pit.” They are musical director/conductor Tony Houck on keyboard, Kevin Jones on guitar, Isaac Crow on bass and Charlie Weller on drums. Kevin Anthenill’s sound design, all things considered, works wondrously well. Peter Herman takes a rare turn as costume designer, and Luke Olson is lighting designer.