“Group!,” a world premiere at Trenton’s Passage Theatre, is one of those pieces that requires a bit of patience because it unfolds like the therapy sessions it depicts. The beginning seems obvious and clichéd, just what you’d expect to hear from women forced by adjudication to attend 12 classes with a psychologist and the fledgling journalist-turned-teacher-turned-therapist assigned to rehabilitate and evaluate them.
Much in the first act of Eloise Govedare and Aleksandra M. Weil’s musical, with a book by Julia B. Rosenblatt, sets eyes rolling as you can almost speak along with the characters as they begin their journey to either recovery or continued addiction and involvement with government-mandated professionals like Jessica, the therapist (Liz Barnett).
The saving grace is the talented cast director Maria Patrice Amon has assembled. Nicole Stacie, Laura Turnbull, Tamara Rodriguez, Samantha Bruce, Deja Fields, and Barnett create distinct characters who make you wish they had dialogue beyond the predictable.
They also sing beautifully, as individuals and as an ensemble that provides clean harmonies and lovely tones.
Because of that talent, and because Passage spent several years and about $200,000 to develop and mount “Group!,” originally set for 2020, you root for it to live up to Stacie and company’s unmistakable potential.
Eventually, it does.
It takes time. The five women — two drug addicts, three alcoholics, one of whom also has a taste for cocaine and one of whom landed in therapy for becoming violent —aren’t ready to reveal their full selves, with all their scars, follies, excuses, and misguided belief they can end their addictions whenever they want. Rosenblatt’s script shows that as the women gain trust, or become so frustrated they have to express themselves, what they have to say to each other and Jessica becomes more nuanced and textured.
The drama is delayed. So is the emotional impact. “Group!” becomes a moving, informative piece that provides insight into the plight of the addict, or even the woman (Turnbull) who drinks for respite from 24-hour care of a mother, who was a dedicated alcoholic, and now has dementia. It also shows flaws in the court’s or government’s system, riddled with incompetence, insufficient budgets, and blinding employee turnover.
By the end of the first act, and throughout the second, truer, more genuine, more poignant, more moving information comes out. The characters who seemed cardboard cut-outs assume palpable life. Their backstories are interesting. You begin to care about them, especially when one relapses and overdoses or another gets caught in an administrative muddle that threatens to have her more harmed by mandated social work than helped by it.
Clichés evolve into individuals. Their problems evolve into our cares.
As said in the beginning, it just takes patience not to dismiss “Group!” without giving it the chance to grow. Perhaps Govedare, Weil, and Rosenblatt could work on generating empathy and impact sooner. For now, “Group!” becomes the show you want it to be a good half-hour, or more, from when the lights go up on Kayla Arrell’s grimly institutional set.
It’s Rosenblatt’s book, and specifically a scene between Stacie and Rodriguez, away from the therapy room, that brings one to full attention.
Stacie and Rodriguez, both providing deep performances that ring true, are able to step away from being the representative stereotypes they are under Jessica’s watch, to become people relating to each as people. It turns out their characters know each other from another rehab program, Alcoholics Anonymous, and that there is, and has been, some attraction between since then.
Once Stacie and Rodriguez get the ball rolling, each character, including Jessica, has a scene that converts them from poster child to living, breathing being. Each actress aces her moment in the spotlight.
Then the miracle happens. The cast, and hence their characters, coalesce into more of an ensemble. They become more interesting. Their interactions are more natural. They are an acting ensemble in the way they had been a musical ensemble since the beginning.
Being a musical, “Group!” has to have songs. Cues are set up every time one of the addicts has angst, but many of Govedare’s lyrics are declarative sentences that might have been more effective spoken than they are sung.
The songs tell a story but in a way that sounds like dialogue set to music instead of something only a lyric could express.
There are exceptions, mostly later in the show, when Turnbull’s Dottie, Rodriguez’s Ceci, and Stacie’s Sandra have numbers that are genuine songs, with a concept and theme rather than a laundry list of complaints or a string of conversation that happens to be sung.
Weil’s music is also better when a number has a more poetic, more compact lyric that reveals an emotion or ambition more than a story.
“Group!” is strongest when its characters have to come back from a lapse or when they enact what happens when they lose discipline and control over their intention or judicial insistence that they change.
Nicole Stacie is so intense in the scene that shows anger getting the better of her and compelling her to use a fist instead of words, she elicits tears. Her roar of a reaction to her assault of another, the regret she shows, and the self-knowledge she reveals, makes one forget the introductory part of “Group!” and admire what its creators can do.
Tamara Rodriguez shows her acting mettle throughout, even in the beginning when her character’s defiance registers as something the authors would have at least one character do. Once she can really let loose, Rodriguez earns your heart and respect for Ceci.
Laura Turnbull is remarkable in her ability to be brittley comic one minute and the picture of pathos the next. Dottie is the most circumstantial of the addicts, and Turnbull makes you care about her.
Samantha Bruce uses both bashfulness and pride in her character’s imagination and commitment to role-playing to create someone who almost can’t escape addiction but must learn to.
The outrage Deja Fields expresses when her character is treated unfairly resonates with the audience. Liz Barnett does a fine job in showing the therapist’s decline from the crisp, pert public servant to a woman worn down from the setbacks of her clients and insufficiencies of the mental health system.
The entire cast sings beautifully and sounds wonderful in ensemble.
Carmen Amon’s costumes are fine, but each character should probably have more than one outfit. Alex Mannix’s lighting did a good job in isolating key scenes.
Group!, Passage Theatre, Mill Hill Playhouse, 205 East Front Street, Trenton. Through Sunday, May 22, Thursday through Saturday, 7:30 p.m., Saturday, 3 p.m., and Sunday, May 15, 3 p.m., and May 22, 2 p.m. $13 to $40. 609-392-0766 or www.passagetheatre.org.
