By Audrey Liebross

 Revolution Stage Company’s Off the Street Remembers the Homeless, with Beautiful Music and Performances

Revolution Stage Company has mounted an excellently acted, sung, and directed production of a world premiere musical, Off the Street, that portrays homeless people as human beings with hopes and dreams. Composers and lyricists Matthew Naylor and Jeanie Cunningham (who also plays Lyla, the matriarch of the homeless community) are clearly committed to social justice causes, including homelessness. An emotional ride, the musical shows a great deal of compassion for the plight of the unsheltered.

In a town that is clearly meant to be a fictionalized version of Palm Springs, mentally ill drug addict Crash (Joseph Portoles), teenager Molly (Alisha Bates), PTSD-afflicted Army vet Gunner (Steve Giboney), and gay young man Easy Jackson (Isaac Gaeta-Tollette), whose family threw him out as soon as he came out, struggle to survive and have lost almost all their hope of finding a place to live. But the matriarch of the homeless community, Lyla (composer Jeanie Cunningham), is sure that on a moonlit night, the day before she turns fifty, a king or queen will find her a home off the street; she will turn fifty tomorrow, and tonight is when she expects the dream to come true.

This is an A-list cast, with top-notch directing by Gary Powers, one of Revolution’s producing partners. (He also plays various news reporters and broadcast personalities). There is not a weak link among the cast members, all of whom show off their fabulous vocal abilities and acting chops. Almost all of the cast members have solos, both as verses within the ensemble numbers and as individual songs, which each sang with great beauty and powerful emotions. The five performers playing the homeless individuals have the meatiest roles and they make the most of them.

The score is lovely, with a mix of ballads and up-tempo pieces. The ensemble numbers, especially “Nimby”, were spirited despite their sometimes dark subject matter. There is even a rap piece, “Eye Shed a Tear,” sung by Easy Jackson, for which classically-trained baritone Isaac Gaeta-Tollette hit the ball out of the park.

While most of the songs are, in fact, dark, the villainous mayor (Brent Reis), whose character provides much of the show’s comic relief through the lyrics and his hilarious dancing, has a light-hearted song, “The Queen,” in which he revels in his selfishness. The other comic character, the aptly named Karen (Wendy Adele Evered), complains superciliously about homeless people bathing in fountains and pooping on the ground. (Believe it or not, this is not just a homeless issue; recent news stories have talked about people waiting in line at Disneyland and Walt Disney World pooping on the ground!)

I have a few complaints about the tuneful and haunting score, but, these are all matters of taste and artistic choices; RSC, after all, is, as its name says, seeking to be revolutionary. Nonetheless, I would prefer a different mix of solos and group numbers — there is only one true duet, the sweet “Here We Are,” by Lyla and Ruby (Sonia Reavis), a good-hearted wealthy lady. Also, the solos are almost all soliloquys; I’d have preferred more pieces in which the characters addressed each other.

But my biggest musical complaint is that Molly’s solo number, which my former College of the Desert classmate, Alisha Bates, performed brilliantly, is about climate change. Although the song emphasizes how uncomfortable homeless people find the increasingly hot summers, I did not see enough of a connection to the show’s subject matter to warrant its being included at all, let alone as the only individual song for Molly, whose mother was a drug addict who lost their home and later their car, leaving Molly alone on the streets. Molly addresses her background in a solo verse of one of the ensemble numbers, but Molly’s personal story is so affecting that, in my opinion (and, again, it is merely one person’s opinion), the composers missed an opportunity by writing about climate change, instead of telling us more about the sweet, but strong waif, Molly.

Molly (Alisha Bates), Gunner (Steve Giboney), and Crash (Joseph Portoles) pour their hearts out.

I am also less impressed with Gary Powers’ book (i.e., the script) than with the powerful music and lyrics. I felt that it came across as heavy-handed, in emphasizing over and over that homeless people are invisible to the mighty. I also disagree with the choice to portray the wealth-loving, bribe-accepting mayor as a Trump clone — the musical includes actual quotes and near-quotes of some of Trump’s infamous pronouncements. If #45 had gone away quietly, the quotes would have been great laugh lines, but, at least in my admittedly liberal view, he belongs in dystopian sci fi instead of in Off the Street.

Also, even though the mayor is an obvious caricature, I cannot imagine a mayor of any fictitious city based on Palm Springs being that insensitive to homelessness; the expense of building and operating supportive housing for homeless people suffering from mental illness or drug addiction is more likely to stand in the way – and yes, so is Nimbyism – than corruption. The story does not say much about those who simply cannot afford housing, but it does argue that housing built for poor people winds up diverted to constituencies that vote in higher numbers. I do not know if this argument is correct, but, to me, it is yet another example of heavy-handedness.

Despite my complaints, Revolution Stage Company has produced some very impressive theatre with this musical. I urge people to see Off the Street. Be prepared to be uplifted as well as to shed a tear or two – or more.

Off the Street will run on Thursday, November 16th, and Saturday, November 18th through Tuesday, November 21st, all at 7:00 p.m, concurrently with Mid-Century Moderns. For more information and to purchase tickets to Revolution’s plays or special events, go to the Web site, at www.RevolutionStageCompany.com. The theater is located at  611 S. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs, in the same shopping center as the Palm Springs Revivals.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF REVOLUTION STAGE COMPANY’S FACEBOOK PAGE.

Revolution’s announced offerings for the rest of the 2023-24 season consist of:

Mid-Century Moderns (October 6th to November 26th). Written and Directed by Mark Christopher, Produced by Mark Christopher, Dan Gelfand. Maryann Popecky, a Wisconsin widow, dreams of moving West to become a secretary.  But when her car breaks down in the shadow of Mt. San Jacinto, it seems that the fates have something else in store. This show features the music of Tom Jones, Petula Clark, Lesley Gore, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, The Association, The Monkees, and many more.

Dickens Writes A Christmas Carol (December 1st to December 23rd), By Charles Dickens, Adapted by Scott Palmer, Directed by Laura Stearns. This exciting new adaptation follows author Charles Dickens while he is conceiving and writing a new story called A Christmas Carol. While pondering the plot, he is visited by muses in his head who throw ideas out to him as he forms the story. These muses act out the story, chiming in from time to time with ideas as he writes. This take on A Christmas Carol is appropriate for the whole family.

Dayna Steele’s much-anticipated play, The Woman in the Mirror, is scheduled for 2024 and the popular singing group, A CABELLO, will perform at the RSC in March, 2024.