Jill's PLAF Diary for Thursday, September 13

So why did I, knowing so little of Grace, request tickets for this particular show? That's simple: It had an interesting concept. Also, it was the very first Fringe-related press release I received, way back in July, so it made it into my schedule no problem, unlike many other interesting-sounding shows that we didn't hear about until it was too late. (Side note to producers, performers, and publicists: the Phillyist staff submits ticket requests before the start of the Festival, and it's unlikely that they will be able to incorporate any last-minute review requests into their schedules. We really want to, because they all sound fantastic, but we just can't. Next year, do what producer Beth Eisenberg did and start early. Please and thanks.) So with only vague familiarity of the album Grace, I set off to the CEC Meeting House in Powelton Village to see a multimedia performance based on it.

The show gets off to a bit of a rocky start. The program for Grace: Kingdom doesn't list a director, and that may be why it often seems to lack a real sense of cohesion, other than a man on a bicycle who periodically pedals around the stage between songs and soliloquizes, or passively interacts with the other performers. Sometimes, it's enough. More often, it's not.

The first song on the album is the somewhat abstractly lyrical "Mojo Pin," and the choice to start the performance with a re-mix of it by local rapper Lee G wasn't a wise one. I don't actively follow the local hip hop scene, but I can follow a beat, and unfortunately, it seemed to me that Lee G couldn't: he was consistently either ahead of or behind the pre-recorded track. The saving grace (no pun intended) of the first song was the dance performed by Will Robinson: breaking with the skill and stamina of a modern dancer, and truly gorgeous. When watching him, I could almost tune out what he was dancing to. Almost.

The second track of the album, "Grace," was performed by Shawn Kilroy, Andreas Baumert, Angela Fleegle, Andrea Fleegle, and Jennifer Prescott, and accompanied by a video by Shawn Kilroy. The three women were wearing identical white dresses and identical synthetic blonde pageboy wigs and sang to Kilroy and Baumert's accompaniment. Unfortunately, I can't offer much opinion on this piece, as the two guitars (one acoustic, one electric) almost completely drowned out the vocals, and what did get through sounded pitchy, as if the singers were as unable to hear themselves as the audience was. At this point in the performance, I was getting pretty pessimistic, and when "Grace" ended and "Last Goodbye" began as a short, scripted piece about an army nurse and a soldier's painful breakup (it was competently acted, but the script was a bit heavy-handed), I wasn't feeling any better.

But then came Liz Filios' a cappella interpretation of the gorgeous ballad "Lilac Wine." I wasn't sure about the staging of the piece, but her voice was clear and her diction nearly perfect. It was a beautiful five minutes. Things were looking up, and only improved after that.

Next up was Brian Cook's somewhat romantic and very arty video to the emotive original recording of "So Real," followed by perhaps the most crowd-pleasing and original performance of the evening: twelve-year-olds Destiny Bridges, Chanel Santiago, and Javon Thomas using the lyrics of "Hallelujah" as a rhyme to accompany their Double Dutch routine. It wasn't perfectly polished (they're twelve) but there wasn't a soul in the audience who didn't smile through the whole bit.

Following the three girls was a novel cello arrangement and Spanish translation of "Lover, You Should Have Come Over" by Dejesús. He's clearly a talented musician, and his vocals elevated the song to a whole new, and even more heartbreaking, level. I'd thought the original and Cullum versions of the song were good to begin with – but this rendition left my jaw on the floor. I bought the artist's CD outside the theatre when the show was over. He was that good.

The brief "Corpus Christi Carol" was basically only used to set up for painter Joey Feldman's visual interpretation of "Eternal Life." First violently, and then with more thought and precision, Feldman is able to complete an entire painting in under five minutes. Last night's was of a big scary insect (maybe one of those mosquitoes outside?), but I'd imagine that changes with each performance. It's fascinating to see a canvas take life, especially in such a short period of time. I wonder what Feldman is doing with the canvases from the show's three performances...

Last up was the ensemble finale to "Dream Brother" – rocky at times (Feldman is a painter, not a dancer), but an ultimately satisfying conclusion to an overall performance that, with a little bit of work, could really go a long way.