A Walk on the Moon (c) Joan Marcus
Theater: A Walk on the Moon
At the Laura Pels Theatre
If you think the titular walk by Neil Armstrong on the moon in 1969 would lean heavily on the metaphor of change and breaking the status quo in the new musical, A Walk on the Moon, you don’t know the half of it. Based on the 1999 film, directed by Tony Goldwyn and starring Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen, the musical, adapted by Pamela Gray on her film script, focuses on one Jewish family in the Catskills on that fateful summer-of-‘69 intersection between the moon landing and a certain musical festival in nearby Woodstock. The four couples who vacation together every summer are enjoying everything they always have, from the mahjong games to the knish parties. But something feels off for Pearl (Talia Suskauer), whose daughter Alison (Sophie Pollono) is turning 16, the same age she was when she got pregnant by her now husband, Marty (Max Chernin). Mother and daughter have an awakening when Pearl starts to flirt with the new blouse salesman (Sam Gravitte) making the rounds selling clothes with an unfortunate name, Walker, while Allison starts flirting with Timmy Chalamet wannabe musician Ross (Oscar Williams), as this newer generation is anti-war and pro-free love. There is a lot to enjoy about this modest Off-Broadway show, with the catchy, if slightly safe songs by AnnMarie Milazzo being quite likeable. Unfortunately, the adult love triangle never really feels dangerous or passionate, with a heavily symbolic tie-dyed tee doing all the heavy lifting for Pearl’s unfulfilled life (maybe if she chose The Feminine Mystique instead of On the Road for her summer read, she might have found her calling outside of her love life). Pollono has the better role as Alison, who starts out as a whiny teen but soon gets politically aware (thanks to her love of Joni Mitchell), gets the best of Milazzo’s songs and has real chemistry with Williams. Similar in tone to the musical version of The Bridges of Madison County, the protagonists of both make very pragmatic decisions, which here feel old-fashioned rather than of the times, which were indeed a changin’.
