Married Alive! presents a musical foursome exploring many ins and outs of marriage, young and old and in between. It's two hours of songs and scenes performed by Rachel Mender, Ed Baker - and lots of Burks: Ethan Burk and Diane Burk on stage (mother and son, I'm guessing?) and Seth Burk (Ethan's brother, maybe?) at the keyboard as music director. Director Rick Dethlefsen has led these four troupers through a script that is funny, occasionally touching, and somewhat trite and sitcom-ish. Halfway through I thought to myself, "I bet this was written by a man," and that prediction proved correct. Sorry, Sean Grennan, I think some other scripts, such as I Do, I Do and I Love You You're Perfect Now Change do a better job of surveying the landscape of marriage.
The show is a demanding trip for four performers. Welcome Ed Baker back on stage after a longish absence. Jean Burk beats Ed on the time-off score, on stage after 29 years. Ethan had some good songs, and Rachel brought her energetic presence and voice - but the singing, in general, was a little uneven. The script offers laughs, often in the sexist-joke genre - interspersed with some refreshing, fun videos, which I doubt actually came WITH the show, but seem to be added as "video garnish" perhaps provided by "sound and projection" Joe Dickson... and/or Director Rick? Rick was also an entertaining addition as the voice of the race track commentary and other auditory-only characters.
Married Alive continues 8pm Thurs/Fri/Sat and 2pm Sun, through August 17 and the beautiful Fitzgerald Park in Grand Ledge. $12/$10 senior / $7studentwww.overtheledge.org
The show is a demanding trip for four performers. Welcome Ed Baker back on stage after a longish absence. Jean Burk beats Ed on the time-off score, on stage after 29 years. Ethan had some good songs, and Rachel brought her energetic presence and voice - but the singing, in general, was a little uneven. The script offers laughs, often in the sexist-joke genre - interspersed with some refreshing, fun videos, which I doubt actually came WITH the show, but seem to be added as "video garnish" perhaps provided by "sound and projection" Joe Dickson... and/or Director Rick? Rick was also an entertaining addition as the voice of the race track commentary and other auditory-only characters.
Married Alive continues 8pm Thurs/Fri/Sat and 2pm Sun, through August 17 and the beautiful Fitzgerald Park in Grand Ledge. $12/$10 senior / $7studentwww.overtheledge.org
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