'They're Playing Our Song' at City Repertory Theatre blends tuneful music with barbed comedy

Palm Coast Observer
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Two very different people find themselves drawn together by love and music in “They’re Playing Our Song” at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre. The musical, with a book by Neil Simon, music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager, draws from the real-life romantic histories of its creators in its depiction of a composer and lyricist who come together to write songs and end up with far more.

Angela Young plays Sonia Walsk, a lyricist based on Bayer Sager. Walsk has gone for too long without writing another hit and is struggling with an ex-boyfriend who won’t leave her apartment.

“She’s very straightforward and isn’t afraid to ask very direct questions,” Young said.

While she does not relate to Walsk’s unusual situation with her ex, Young said she does relate strongly to her character’s penchant for channeling her sadness and uncertainty into art.

“And for wearing funky secondhand clothes,” Young added.

Beau Wade plays Vernon Gersch, a composer based on Hamlisch. He is a man with multiple hits, awards and fame, but far less success when it comes to committed romance.

“He struggles with a lot of different neuroses,” Wade said. “He’s really only comfortable when playing the piano.”

He believes most anyone, even people without runaway success in the music industry, can connect with this character, who wishes other people were as simple as notes on a page.

“A lot of people struggle with meeting new people, becoming interested and finding they have baggage,” Wade said.

These potent personalities do not find harmony on first meeting, however.

“It’s a classic battle,” said director John Sbordone, “a Neil Simon odd couple.”

Angela Young and Beau Wade in "They're Playing Our Song." Photo by Mike Kitaif

Simon’s witty, barbed book puts as much power in the spoken word as in the sung, with so many jabs and jokes per minute that the songs are as much a breather in the midst of the comedy as they are opportunities for the songwriters to reflect on their emotional journeys.

“It’s really a play with music, rather than a traditional musical,” Sbordone said.

That music, however, does not disappoint.

“They’re earworms,” Young said of Hamlisch and Bayer Sager’s infectious pop score.

Several of the songs are sung by the characters to their own psyches, represented by another pair of actors, Alexander Loucks and Marisa Glidden.

“It’s fun to work off the rapport me and Angela already have,” Gliddens said. “Playing another side of her character as we work out, ‘What are we really trying to tell him?’”

Sbordone admits “They’re Playing Our Song” is not a show CRT would ordinarily tackle; it’s not “edgy,” with emotionally more grounded, if cleverer than average, characters and less angst than in something like “Spring Awakening” or “Next to Normal.”

“But nobody around here is doing it,” he said. “It provides a different challenge. And we’ve wound up with the best possible cast.”

Sbordone, Young and Wade all said they look forward to having the audience seated as close as possible to the action, so they can share in the music and comic asides in a more intimate setting.

“They’ll really become the fourth character,” Sbordone said.