Tomorrow Morning

Tomorrow Morning

Greenhouse Theater Center Chicago

(773) 404-7336

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Somebody should have warned Laurence Mark Wythe against writing a “sentimental romantic musical centered on one couple getting married and one getting divorced,” said Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune. Musicals about the pitfalls of love and marriage have been done before, and too many times. Luckily for us, nobody did warn Wythe away from the topic. With Tomorrow Morning the hugely talented British composer and lyricist infuses common relationship tropes with “truth, heart, and enough universality that we can all find our way into his characters.” The plot is nothing special, but Wythe makes you care about the characters. Just when you think his musical numbers are going to lapse into cliché, they instead “surprise you with wit, invention, and truth.”

Tomorrow Morning is a believable, moving story about love, delivered with a “large and bittersweet twist of anxiety, disillusionment, regret, and forgiveness,” said Hedy Weiss in the Chicago Sun-Times. As the younger couple, John and Kat, Michael Mahler and Emily Thompson perfectly play a pair “on the verge of a tense youthful marriage.” Jonathan Rayson and Charissa Armon are equally effective as Jack and Catherine, who have a lot in common with John and Kat—though “one son, one betrayal, much Jack Daniel’s, and a whole lot of friction” later. Wythe’s more intimate songs are his most successful, but songs such as “The Secret Tango” and “The Pool Guy” provide splendid comic relief. This musical clearly marks him as a talent to keep an eye on.