BWW Reviews: One Last Night for Araca Project's ONE NIGHT ONLY at American Theatre of Actors

One Night Only, a part of the 2012 Araca Project, finishes its run today at the American Theatre of Actors (314 West 54^th Street). Directed by T. J. Shanoff, One Night Only is a completely improvised musical.  With music direction by Mike Descoteaux, One Night Only stars Kate Cohen, Matthew Van Colton, Katie Dufrensne, Nicole C. Hastings, Kevin Sciretta and Michael Girts. The cast creates a brand new musical each night, developed through audience suggestion, singing, dancing, rhyming, rapping and free play. All veterans of The Second City's farm system, One Night Only, uses audience suggestions to create a 60-minute musical to rival Sondheim himself.

I should start off this review by saying that I really don't get musical improvisation. I understand improvisation as a method to access something deeper in your art.  However, musical improvisation is like letting children barbeque over an open flame without adult supervision or herding cats.  Maybe your audience shouldn't be given so much responsibility.

Not that I don't love the idea of a musical called, "Robot Warfare" (last night's suggestion). Giorgio Moroder would be proud.  Nonetheless, even in the stodgiest of Off-Broadway venues, there's always one audience member who thinks he or she is hilarious.   When asked for a song title, somebody of course yelled out "Frankenstein's Toe."  Sigh.

Overall, One Night Only is improvised in a pretty traditional format.  There is a suggestion of a musical title, a couple of song titles and then they are off and running.  I give One Night Only credit for going one step further, asking for letters which would ultimately wind up being the notes in which the musical is composed.

The cast worked well as a team, complementing each other while giving the audience a good dose of the irreverence you want from your improvisation.  If Beyoncé were cast in "Metropolis" you would have Nicole Hastings' evil fembot, "Cassandra", from last night.  I also really enjoyed Kevin Sciretta's evil  "Dr. Torvald."  He was part-Henrik Ibsen, part-Steve Buscemi.  I hate to point out performances when it comes to improvisation, especially because the entire method is based on teamwork and working as one group mind.  However, I need to bring up Matthew Van Colton.  His voice goes far beyond the typical "funny guy who can carry a tune."  His voice is abnormally good.  Frankly, on any given day, you could easily have placed Van Colton over a couple of blocks at "The Book of Mormon" and it would make perfect sense.  Although I wish the plot would have moved quicker, I felt like the cast was still introducing characters twenty-five minutes in, the show did get going and wrapped up in sixty minutes as promised.  I also felt the cast navigated the stage far better than most fully mounted shows I've seen on the Chernuchin stage.

I don't really see this show going anywhere without Mike Descoteaux's music direction.  If this guy's reference level were a physical building, it would be a branch of the Library of Congress.  Besides the typical job requirements of navigating audience suggestion of plots, genre and song titles, he has to navigate audience suggestions of notes.

Really?  I wouldn't trust a member of the audience to park my Prius.

Seriously though, if you appreciate great musicianship, Mike Descoteaux is actually the standout of the show.  His improvisation on "Oil the Gears" (one of actually the stronger audience suggestions of the evening) echoed "Unworthy of Your Love" from Sondheim's Assassins.  Off the top of his head, he gave the cast the tools for not just a legitimate song.  He gave the cast the tools for good musical theatre.

By giving artists the opportunity to take on the full artistic and fiscal responsibilities of producing their work Off-Broadway, The Araca Project emboldens artists to recognize the power of the entrepreneurial spirit in shaping one's artistic destiny.   One Night Only is one of six shows in this year's Araca project, which were all produced by young professionals who graduated between 2002 and 2012.  You have one more shot to see One Night Only.  Tickets are available at the box office or at onenightonlynyc.com.