1980s Spy Musical Comedy ‘Cold War Choir Practice’ Is Stylishly Mounted but Out of Tune

“Don’t say you’re easy on me, ’cause you’re about as easy as a nuclear war.” This lyric from Duran Duran’s 1983 hit song “Is There Something I Should Know?” has long been the strangest cultural reference to impending atomic apocalypse. But there is indeed something that Simon Le Bon and company should know; they no longer hold that distinction. The weirdest piece of entertainment about nuclear war is now “Cold War Choir Practice” which has just opened at MCC Theater in Midtown Manhattan. Ro Reddick’s comedy, set against the specter of Mutually Assured Destruction is itself completely, unashamedly, mad.“Cold War Choir Practice”, which bills itself as a “new play with music,” is set in Syracuse in December 1987 (Christmas being constantly referenced in a show opening in springtime is one of the more normal aspects of this production.) 10-year-old Meek (Alana Raquel Bowers) is obsessed with the prospect of armageddon and a nuclear radiation detector is high on her Christmas wish list. Her Cold War fears are heightened when she joins a children’s chorus called the Seedlings of Peace which seeks to avert conflict between U.S. and Russia through song. Through the choir Meek gets a Russian pen pal who enlists her as a spy via a Speak & Spell machine. Her father Smooch (Will Cobbs), a former Black Panther, is more concerned with battling to keep his Roll-A-Rama skating rink open and fighting with his brother Clay (Andy Lucien) who is visiting from Washington, D.C.Clay has risen through the Reaganite ranks to become Deputy National Security Advisor but has to contend with his wife Virgie (Crystal Finn) undergoing a breakdown after being in a conservative cult called Wellspring. Although presumably a nod to the real-life controversial “human potential” group Lifespring, Wellspring is as fanciful a conservative organization as the Christmas Adventurers Club, which Colonel Lockjaw (Sean Penn), belonged to in Paul Thomas Anderson’s recent film “One Battle After Another.” (Ms. Reddick herself really did sing in a Cold War-era children’s chorus but it’s unclear not merely whether she spoke to Republicans in researching this show, but whether she has ever spoken to many Republicans at all.) Ms. Reddick makes much of Clay being an outlier in the Reagan administration owing to the fact he is black but interestingly, around this time in reality, a black man, in the form of Colin Powell was Deputy National Security Adviser (the character of Clay, it should be said, is nothing like Colin Powell.) While “Cold War Choir Practice” is peppered with speeches from President Reagan, you’re more likely to hear references in it to Casper the Friendly Ghost than to Caspar Weinberger. Reassuringly unreliable, The New York Times called this show “brainy” when it premiered at Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks festival last summer, but we’re a long way from “Dr. Strangelove.”The erratic tone extends to the songs sung by the Seedlings of Peace choir in the form of a three-member Greek chorus. Most take the form of satire, such as “Milkshake for Peace,” but another song “Lay Down Your Arms” seems to be a more sincere and heartfelt plea for pacifism between Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev.Yet what saves “Cold War Choir Practice” is its infectious spirit, infused with excellent performances from all the cast and sharp direction from Knud Adams. Special mention must go to Grace McLean, one third of the choir who also plays an unscrupulous Soviet handler; I haven’t seen anyone have that much fun on stage for a long while. The scenic design from Afsoon Pajoufar and period costumes from Brenda Abbandandolo effectively bring the late 1980s to life. Futhermore the lightness of touch in a show ostensibly dealing with such dark themes is refreshing and Mr. Adams is to be commended for directing his actors to shout at each other rather than at the audience. Ms. Reddick’s offbeat creativity is sourced from the same well as the innovative entertainment that defined the decade she has set her new work in. But this is a journey that, however stylish and sprightly, is all over the map. For all its verve and charm, the pleasures derived from “Cold War Choir Practice” remain decidedly lukewarm.

1980s Spy Musical Comedy ‘Cold War Choir Practice’ Is Stylishly Mounted but Out of Tune

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