Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

The Civilians, one of the utmost critics darlings of the NYC scene (people practically genuflect when their name is mentioned), take on a rather large topic, the recent wave of the Evangelical movement in Colorado Springs, and it’s awfully hard to imagine a citified theater troupe looking at this subject with clear eyes and an open heart. Amazingly, though, they do, quite a surprise since this reviewer found their last endeavor (Gone Missing, about various people and their relationships to lost objects) a tad smug and self-satisfied. (Did every character need a goofy accent straight out of a Coen brothers film“) This Beautiful City has a more generous attitude toward its presentation, interesting since some of what their subjects spout is hardcore hatred. In typical fashion, the troupe went to Colorado to interview persons attached and detached from the movement, and re-enact them onstage, interweaving original songs (by composer Michael Friedman) that suit the milieu.

Director Steven Cosson uses projections (showing the churches strip mall-lie pattern) and David Weiner’s colorful lighting design to suggest different places and there is a back wall set of Colorado Springs flipped upright like a neighborhood model Doc Brown might have created in Back to the Future. The six performers (all worth mention - Emily Ackerman, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Brad Heberlee, Brandon Miller, Stephen Plunkett, Alison Weller) weave stories in and out, along the way, we hear from a downtown liberal newspaper man (who thinks the movement deem his ‘nabe as a “den of inequity”), a Jewish Republican clearly incensed by military adoption of religious faith for new recruits, the leaders of RHOP, a religious center in danger of closing due to the prominence of larger, more flashy houses, like New Faith Church, where Pastor Ted Haggard (eventually found out for homosexual acts and crystal meth usage) famously presided.

The last detail was an incredibly fortuitous break for the Civilians (it literally broke while conducting their interviews), which might explain why it isn’t as succinctly integrated as other tales. The story of Colorado’s Pastor Reynolds of Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church, who eventually came out publicly, is more vigorously explored, especially through actor Blake’s fiery performance as a choir member hell-bent on getting rid of him (her violent cadence of the word “pulpit” is scarier than the Devil himself) and her stunning take on Reynolds‘s successor, who seems like he could levitate a building with his words alone. Ackerman is touching as a trans-girl Christian struggling to gain recognition without compromising her fate, and Weller is a beatific presence throughout, especially as a proponent of 2006’s Referendum I, which later failed to give same-sex partnership rights to citizens.

The level of fairness in the portrayals is commendable, and there’s very little editorializing by its cast, it’s the rare show where Christians and non-Christians could enjoy it equally. The musical sections, however, are the one major drawback. While fully realizing that the music it is drawing from is often malleable and sole-purposed, Friedman’s lite rock contributions are mostly forgettable, and often detract from the smooth dramatic scene changes, which fluidly blend stories into one another. They simply don’t add much to the stories we’re hearing, and Civilians’ shows have had far more memorable tunes coursing through them before. Still, This Beautiful City is a very worthwhile evening, if only for how even-handed it is with such a controversial topic. And the subject of religion is well worth continuing to discuss, and always more than relevant, no matter who is president.