Little Fish
Second Stage Theater, Hollywood
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Michael John LaChiusa’s “jittery, engagingly off-kilter” musical tells the story of woman quitting smoking, said Charlotte Stoudt in the Los Angeles Times. Most musicals are built around a character with a deep sense of ambition or yearning, which inevitably finds expression in a show-stopping number. Little Fish instead explores “what happens when a musical revolves around someone who has no clue what she wants.” Charlotte, played by Alice Ripley, is a New Yorker whose world seems to be closing in on her. A small, nimble cast figures out how to pack the overwhelming energy of New York onto this L.A. stage, and choreographer Jane Lanier “knows how to take a tiny space and make it feel dynamic and textured instead of cramped.” In fact, this production’s problem is that it tries to pack too much in. “Even for a story of confusion, Fish is a little too discombobulated.” At least the musical “has a real pulse,” said Evan Henerson in the Los Angeles Daily News. Too many new musicals these days—including LaChiusa’s own flop in 2000, The Wild Party—come off stilted and removed. Where previously LaChiusa has strived to write serious quasi-opera, Little Fish is a touchingly light entertainment. “LaChiusa’s music, which in the past has been largely sung through dialogue, has recognizable narrative structure here.” At the center of that narrative is the long-suffering Charlotte and her everyday trials with roommates, family, and romantic partners. “Ripley’s Charlotte suggests a spirit of endurance and—barely—resilience.” We come to root for her and to realize that, more than a cigarette, what she really needs is “to catch a break.”