“Emojiland: The Musical” Show Review by Andrea Santo Felcone
What if all the emojis in your smartphone came to life? How would they interact? What kinds of friendships would they form? What would their love lives look like? What would they do? Maybe you have never thought about your emojis in this way, using them merely to punctuate the ends of sentences and add feelings to texts, but this interesting idea of emojis coming to life is the basis for a new Off-Broadway Musical—“Emojiland”–now playing at The Duke theater (229 W. 42nd Street).
“Emojiland” Cast: Photo credit: Jeremy Daniel.
The first challenge (one would imagine) of putting together a musical based on flat, dimensionless icons, would be how to represent those icons in human form. And, from there, creatively, would these flat icons—as characters now–have depth and dimension? It turns out the first part of this dilemma is handled beautifully by the “Emojiland” costume, hair and make-up team, as the emojis, once alive, are really alive. The colors of the costumes and wigs are gorgeous and sparkly–like candy for the eyes. There’s a Princess emoji, (Lesli Margherita) all glitzed out in her finest sequins, swinging her long pink pony tail. (The vibe is something like Lady Gaga meets My Pretty Pony). There’s “Smize” (a “Smiling Face with Smiling Eyes” played by Laura Schein—also Book, Music & Lyrics co-writer). Her plastic-looking yellow dress with pink polka-dots, is happy on the outside, but underneath, blue petticoats indicate something more. This costume mirrors her mood as we find out in the musical number, “Sad on the Inside”. Perhaps the masterpiece, though, is the “Pile of Poo” emoji (Ann Harada). Yes, where would we be without the Poop emoji?—wig swirled into a tower on her head, a shiny triple-tiered brown dress that made poop look glamorous. (The white go-go boots definitely helped). All of the emojis came to life beautifully at the hands of Vanessa Leuck (Costume and Make-up) and Bobbie Zlotnik (Hair and Wig Design).
Ann Harada as “Pile of Poo” Emoji. Photo credit: Jeremy Daniel.
So, now that the emojis are skillfully represented in dimension on stage, will they have emotional depth as well? Well, here, as we get invested in the storyline, problems arise. Some of the characters have dimension, some do not. (It’s hard to tell if this is intentional.) Smize has dimension as we see that she is not all that she appears on the outside. She, however, is dating “Smiling Face with Sunglasses” (Jacob Dickey as “Sunny”) and he is the epitome of a flat character: only concerned with his own reflection and status. He is good-looking and expects all the other emojis to follow him around, especially the female emojis. (And, they largely do.) While it makes sense for this emoji to be self-absorbed, it’s hard to see what Smize, a thoughtful character, sees in him. When “Nerd Face” emoji (George Abud) enters, after a recent upgrade (very clever), “Smize” starts to see that there may be more to romance than just a pretty face. We later find “Sunny” has been spotted doing more than just blowing kisses with “Kissy Face” emoji (Heather Makalani). Although this “love triangle, or rather “love square” of sorts, seemed to occupy a central place in the plot, the love affair that was much more interesting to watch was the one between two background characters: “Police Officer” emoji (Felicia Boswell) and “Construction Worker” emoji (Natalie Weiss). In fact, the one song that, somewhat unexpectedly, became the showstopper was Boswell’s “A Thousand More Words”. Boswell pours so much heart and soul into that number you can’t help but root for this couple. (A cast album is set to release in February/March, and it would definitely be worth it to hear Boswell’s emotional rendering of this song, once again.)
Emojiland: Nerd Face (George Abud) and Smize (Laura Schein). Photo credit: Jeremy Daniel.
There is another main story thread where the “Skull” emoji (Lucas Steele) is trying to convince “Nerd Face” to help him “delete himself”. Eventually, we come to see Skull’s request isn’t all that it appears, but by then it may be too late for Nerd Face to fix all the things that are going wrong in “Emojiland”. As we leave Act I and enter Act II, a firewall is being constructed as it is now imperative to keep new emojis out (a slight detour here into a modern-day political statement). Now, issues of emoji deletion (death), and mortality (and the angst that goes along with obsessing over mortality) are introduced. Just when you think this is getting a bit too dark from where it all started, (bring back My Pretty Pony and the sparkles!), it pulls itself back and “resets” (figuratively and literally). “Emojiland” can feel more like a collection of vignettes of anthropomorphized emojis, rather than a story with a single unifying theme.
Where “Emojiland” shines–and shines brightly–is in its casting. “Emojiland” is gifted with an absolutely stellar cast, every single performer. There is no shortage of talent on stage, and the intimacy of The Duke theater lets the audience feel very close to the performers. The evening I attended, the audience energy was electric as these Broadway heavy-hitters graced the stage: Lesli Margherita (“Matilda”) dazzles as “Princess”. George Abud (“The Band’s Visit”) as “Nerd Face” was very endearing, and kudos to him for prevailing over some difficult “nerd” dialogue. Lucas Steele (“The Great Comet”) is deliciously creepy as “Skull”. Max Crumm (“Grease”) not only sang, but sang (and danced) on a hoverboard to represent his “Man in Business Suit Levitating” emoji. Josh Lamon (“The Prom”) entertained with his campy “Prince” character. Felicia Boswell (“Shuffle Along”, NBC’s “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert”) as “Police Officer” added a much-needed emotional layer. The talent has quickly established this show as a bonafide fan favorite—the run has been extended to March 19th.
The truly outstanding cast along with a fun concept, excellent set design (David Goldstein), costumes, make-up, hair, and creative lighting (Jamie Roderick), make for an entertaining musical, with “A Thousand More Words” the standout song. The only lingering wish: one over-arching theme to tie everything together.
Note: A bit of mild language, may not be appropriate for younger children.
Tickets: https://www.emojiland.com/#tickets; Instagram: @EMOJIMUSICAL;
Twitter: @EMOJIMUSICAL; Facebook: @EMOJILAND
Book, Music & Lyrics by: Keith Harrison and Laura Schein
Director: Thomas Caruso
Cast:
Nerd Face: George Abud
Smize: Laura Schein
Sunny: Jacob Dickey
Construction Worker: Natalie Weiss
Skull: Lucas Steele
Prince: Josh Lamon
Police Officer: Felicia Boswell
Princess: Lesli Margherita
Man in Business Suit Levitating: Max Crumm
Pile of Poo: Ann Harada
Guardsman & others: Dwelvan David
Kissy Face, Information Desk Woman & others: Heather Makalani
Man dancing & others: Jordan Fife Hunt
Woman dancing & others: Tanisha Moore
Tags: Emojis, musical, NYC Theater, Off-Broadway Theater
