Dream On, Baransky

Every musical production has a choice to make about how it wants to handle their musical numbers. Are the characters just going to sing and that’s the accepted norm? Or is there going to be an in story reason for why there’s suddenly music? Is it something that is going to be acknowledged or just taken for granted? Dream On, Baransky, in performances at the American Theater of Actors, bills itself quite accurately as “a surreal, quasi-musical comedy”. It establishes an interesting convention for its songs – it sets them in dream sequences. It’s an interesting format that fits perfectly the tone of what the show’s creating, but it seems to create a lot of room for complication in the script.

Dream On, Baransky follows Jonathan Baransky (played by Archie Colville) as he attempts to navigate his feelings for/relationships with three women (Lyla, played by Julie Bausivoir, his best friend’s wife Suzie, played by Mecca Alexis, and his former girlfriend Jennifer played by Kaelin Phillips). In therapy to help navigate his anxiety and why he’s so confused about his feelings for these women, Jonathan’s psychiatrist, Dr. Smithson (Olivia Fairless) decides to try a new treatment; she starts him on a medication called Dreamacil. When he’s feeling stressed, he can take a pill to go into a sort of trancelike state where he will have a dream. In the dream, these people in his life will sing a song that can be analyzed in his next session to get some insight into what kind of impact he’s having on these women, what they might want from him, and what he wants for himself.

This is the set up for all of the show’s musical numbers – they happen in Jonathan’s medication-induced dreams. The problem is it feels like there’s straightaway an inconsistency to how this conceit works. When he’s given the first pill in Dr. Smithson’s office, it leads smoothly into the show’s first song. When he starts using the pills in moments of anxiety and stress through the rest of the show, he has a figure “guide” him to the song, taking him somewhere to hear or sing the next number he’s supposed to experience. This is occasionally done by a member of the “reform squad” there to help Jonathan’s journey of self-discovery and improvement, but usually not. We mostly see this squad of characters in interludes between scene and song when Jonathan isn’t even present, interacting mostly with each other. As entertaining as they are, it makes their purpose unclear and muddies the idea of what they actually are if they’re supposed to be in Jonathan’s head. There’s also a song at the end of Act 1 that doesn’t seem to be linked to Jonathan taking a Dreamacil at all.

Additionally, these interludes pull away from the main story with a fair amount of regularity. The approximately 2 and a half hour (with intermission) run time of the show isn’t bad in and of itself, but it feels like it could be significantly tightened. These scenes and interludes aren’t even covering set transitions so even at their most amusing feel like they don’t serve much purpose other than filler. On the whole, the script feels still like a work in progress – it has good elements and potential, but seems in need of further edits to really shine.

On the whole, the cast does a fine job. Colville fits remarkably well as Jonathan, carrying the tough job of creating a lead that is capable of being pretty much a complete jerk to these women without alienating the audience with skill. As for the women – the three actresses do a great job working admittedly with a script that doesn’t tell us much about these women outside of them wanting commitment from Jonathan. Fairless and members of the reform squad, particularly Bea Corkhill and Hera Gunes Barlowe, give a great comedic turn. Director Luana Seu does a great job staging, making good use of the space and giving a great amount of energy to certain numbers (particularly “A Place Where A Guy Can Have Some Fun”). There are no designers credited, but the set was well designed. The weakest technical element was the lighting – it often felt uneven or shadowy, and it feels like that’s because there weren’t enough lights hung to offer the coverage needed.

Ultimately, Dream on, Baransky is a production by a talented and passionate team. It’s a story about being able to face and take accountability for our own shortcomings and the way we hurt others intentionally or unintentionally that has a lot of merit. But it’s a show that still has a number of spots that could stand to be strengthened.