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Maddie: A New Musical

A British musical based on Jack Finney's time traveling novel "Marion's Wall" in which a silent film actress returns to get her missed Hollywood audition.

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Kelly Maur as Jan Cheyney and Joe Lewis as Nick Cheyney in a scene from the new musical “Maddie” at The Players Theatre (Photo credit: Ian McQueen Photography)

Maddie: A New Musical has had an interesting history. It all began with the 1973 novel Marion’s Wall by Jack Finney, the proponent of time travel fiction like Time and Again. In 1985 Hollywood discovered the property and it was turned into the film Maxie with Glenn Close, Mandy Patinkin and Ruth Gordon. Then in 1990 composer Stephen Keeling was chosen to be in Stephen Sondheim’s year-long Masterclass at Oxford University and chose the novel to adapt for a musical. Its workshop at the Royal National Theatre Studio led to its being picked up by a producer who wanted many rewrites and then dropped the option. Six years later it was tried out at the Salisbury Playhouse and transferred to London’s Lyric Theatre in a full production.

In 2016 a two-disc 20th Anniversary London Cast album was released with new recordings from 2016 and studio demos from 1990 – 1997. This may have led to interest in the show in the United States in 2023 and the revised version was given for three performances at 54 Below. This led to participation in the New York Theatre Festival that fall. Now Maddie: A New Musical is having its Off Broadway premiere at The Players Theatre in Greenwich Village.

Truman Griffin as Morton Dupree and Shannon Payette Seip as Cordelia Van Arc in a scene from the new musical “Maddie” at The Players Theatre (Photo credit: Ian McQueen Photography)

The clever premise of the plot concerns a young couple Jan and Nick Cheyney who move into a top floor apartment whose tenants once included silent film actress Madeline Marsh who was killed in a car crash on her way to her Hollywood audition for a major director. In stripping off the peeling wallpaper, they uncover a wall with a message in red lipstick: “Madeline Marsh – June 14th, 1926. Read it and weep!” When Jan accidentally touches the wall she brings back Maddie who takes over her body. Maddie’s purpose is to get her audition and prove she is a great film actress. Maddie goes in and out of Jan’s body causing all kinds of mayhem. Eventually she gets her audition but will it be Maddie or Jan who shows up?

The show at The Players Theatre is not exactly the same show that played in London’s West End with book by Shaun McKenna and Steven Dexter which like the original novel was set in San Francisco. Now the show has been reset in New York’s East Village. Unfortunately, this also means Finney’s tribute to silent film stars is entirely missing which is one of the original novel’s strong suits. Additionally, the authors do not make use of the new setting except for a scene under the Queensboro Bridge.

Logan Broadnax, Joe Lewis, Justin Burr, Kelly Maur as Maddie Marsh, Jorge  Valero and Alysia Vastardis in a scene from the new musical “Maddie” at The Players Theatre (Photo credit: Ian McQueen Photography)

As much of the novel cannot be depicted on stage (Nick and Jan’s elderly dog Al, Nick’s father who knew the actress in her prime but lives elsewhere now, Hollywood film stages, mansions of the glamorous stars of the silent film era, etc.) the book by McKenna and Dexter had to make substitutions: Al becomes their elderly landlord Al Turner who we are told had a double vaudeville act with Maddie. Nick is now a museum curator who has dabbled in painting but this too is not made part of the storyline. An entirely extraneous subplot concerns formerly rich widow Cordelia Van Arc who needs Nick to authenticate her Picasso as her late husband’s money seems to have been badly invested and this is all she has left. She is assisted by her lawyer, the slightly younger Morton Dupree who is romantically attracted to her. That plot eventually becomes part of the main storyline.

Director/choreographer Andrew Winans’ production lacks imagination and does not give the material its best shot. While the story requires a lavish design, the bare bones production does not even list a set designer. At the performance under review Claire Talbott’s projection design appeared fuzzy and out of focus. Music director/pianist Matthew Zwiebel’s playing overpowers the singing so that Shaun McKenna’s lyrics are often lost and the orchestrations by Joshua Gregg Fried to Keeling’s music which only include additional drums needs beefing up. What lyrics could be heard are pedestrian and generic, always telling us what we already know and adding nothing to the plot.

Joe Lewis as Nick Cheyney, Kelly Maur as Maddie and Alexander Todd Torrenga as Al Turner in a scene from the new musical “Maddie” at The Players Theatre (Photo credit: Ian McQueen Photography)

The casting (or direction, it is not clear which) is very uneven. Kelly Maur has much animation when she turns into Maddie, particularly in the show’s best song and Charleston dance number, “Drive Me Wild,” a twenties pastiche. On the other hand, her Nick played by Joe Lewis is extremely bland and makes little impression, often the case when a novel’s narrator is dramatized. Shannon Payette Seip as Mrs. Van Arc and Truman Griffin as Morton Dupree are so over the top as to be caricatures. Alexander Todd Torrenga as landlord/former vaudeville trouper does the best with an underwritten role which does not appear in the novel. As Jan’s co-worker and best friend Sally, Lexis Trechak is almost more aggressive and pushy than Maddie which sort of unbalances the story. The rest of the cast of ten appear in multiple roles in the course of the evening. Wardrobe designer Danny Durr seems to have only been given resources for rich Cordelia Van Arc who is dressed in a series of attractive designer outfits.

In Maddie, Jack Finney’s clever novel Marion’s Wall has not been given the musical it deserves. It might be informative to see the original London version which kept the San Francisco setting. However, as this is really a story about the Silent Film era it might have been best left to the movies to dramatize the story.

Alysia Vastardis, Logan Broadnax, Kelly Maur and Lexis Trechak in a scene from the new musical “Maddie” at The Players Theatre (Photo credit: Ian McQueen Photography)

Maddie: A New Musical (through June 8, 2025)

The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit http://www.maddiemusical.com

Running time: two hours including one intermission

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About Victor Gluck, Editor-in-Chief (1085 Articles)
Victor Gluck was a drama critic and arts journalist with Back Stage from 1980 – 2006. He started reviewing for TheaterScene.net in 2006, where he was also Associate Editor from 2011-2013, and has been Editor-in-Chief since 2014. He is a voting member of The Drama Desk, the Outer Critics Circle, the American Theatre Critics Association, and the Dramatists Guild of America. His plays have been performed at the Quaigh Theatre, Ryan Repertory Company, St. Clements Church, Nuyorican Poets Café and The Gene Frankel Playwrights/Directors Lab.

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