He Has More Than Ziti on the Brain

He Has More Than Ziti on the 'Brain'

By Linda Winer. STAFF WRITER (6/19/98)

        A New Brain. Music and lyrics by William Finn, book by Finn and James Lapine, directed and choreographed by Graciela Daniele. Lincoln Center Theater at the Mitzi E. Newhouse. Seen at Saturday's preview.
        IN 1992, William Finn won two Tony Awards for "Falsettos" - a chamber musical that, among its many amazing and lovable achievements, managed to be a charming and disarming, singing and dancing domestic tragicomedy about the early years of AIDS.
        Here, we thought then, is the argument against the doomsayers who said Stephen Sondheim spawned nothing but cold copycats, against the glitzmongers who doubted Broadway audiences would put out for shows about more than scenery, against the schlock-pop bottom feeders who insisted that innovation required screamers, mikes and a sound designer. Finn was an original who created identifiable characters smart enough to be foolish and human enough to break. We relaxed and waited - and waited, and waited - for whatever this challenging but remarkably personable talent would do next.
        Finally, six years after his first mainstream success, Finn is back with a show that explains what took him so long. "A New Brain," which opened last night at Lincoln Center's Newhouse in Graciela Daniele's savvily cast and staged production, is a 90-minute chamber musical about a songwriter who almost dies from a brain disorder. As Finn says in a program note, he was mistakenly told a week after the Tonys that he had an inoperable brain tumor.
        But don't go away sad. Just as "Falsettos" proved the difference between moving and depressing, "A New Brain" is as entertaining as it is emotionally blunt. Besides, since Finn is writing about the weeks "when I thought I was going to die and didn't," those who need happy endings are assured of one from the start.
        In no way does this knowledge mean the stakes aren't high or the storyline is generic. We first meet Gordon Schwinn (rhymes with Finn) at the piano, loathing himself as he tries to write ditties for Mr. Bungee, a hateful children's performer in a frog costume. Then, whining at lunch with his agent, Rhoda, he suddenly holds his head and cries, "Something is wrong, something is very very wrong," and drops into his ziti. As he goes from hospital horror to horror, he mourns the songs he will never write.
        Malcolm Gets - a theater vet most easily identifiable these days from "Caroline in the City" - is a treasure as Schwinn. Gets actually plays piano (though most of the delicately textured accompaniment comes from a small offstage orchestra). He can sing and act and, though he may be too likable to make Schwinn's emotional transformation seem as profound as intended, we can't hold charisma against him.
        Finn, who writes wonderful women characters, has done it again with "the mother," an upbeat, capable woman who cannot bear her inability to save her son. Penny Fuller, better known in recent years for dramatic roles, is a revelation here, suggesting the desperation of Gypsy's Mama Rose in "Mother's Gonna Make Things Fine" and compulsively cleaning Gordon's apartment by throwing out his books.
        Even if we are weary of the wise homeless woman in plays, Mary Testa keeps the wisdom caustic as she demands, "I want change," and means it, singing "Pennies or nickels or dimes, we live in perilous times." Kristin Chenoweth, as the waitress and the "thin nurse," again proves herself a master of turning her own pertness against herself, while Liz Larsen offers far more than second-banana support as Rhoda.
        Except for Christopher Innvar, who was singing uncharacteristically flat as Gordon's sailing-obsessed lover at the preview I attended, the men are swell. Chip Zien, the psychiatrist in "Falsettos," turns his nerdy hambone persona dark as the evil Mr. Bungee, who haunts Gordon's dreams on a bicycle. John Jellison has just the right slick vanity as the doctor, and Michael Mandell is terrific as the "nice nurse," a black man who sings his incredulity at being "poor, unsuccessful and fat."
        Daniele and her creative team keep everything moving with unexpected inventions. The ever-marvelous set designer, David Gallo, projects Gordon's face from inside the tomb-like MRI (re-imagined as a sailboat) and puts a bird's-eye view of him comatose on his hospital bed during his out-of-body routines. Costume designer Toni-Leslie James has a great sense of floppy fabrics. She also knows how to make a frog ominous.
        Finn, with his co-author James Lapine (the director of "Falsettos"), has written a constantly surprising tone poem -with almost no dialogue and an outlandish delight in the specificity of individual quirks. As admirers of "Falsettos" know, Finn is one of the few post-Sondheim composers who can keep arioso and recitative from sounding contrived and silly. His songs are especially seductive in the contrapuntal ensembles, with characters overlapping in contradictory passions.
        The ending gets a bit sappy and some numbers are a little up-with-people for our taste. When a man dares rhyme "yes indeedie" with "here's your ziti" and writes a goofy celebration of unlucky genetics, however, we're in.

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