Melissa Etheridge, for Whom Subtlety Was Never a Strong Suit, Leads With Love in Autobiographical Show on Broadway

In a career spanning more than three decades, the singer/songwriter Melissa Etheridge has pledged to walk across a fire, to drown in her desire, to stand inside her hell, and hold the hand of death — and that’s in two hit singles alone.Subtlety has never been Ms. Etheridge’s strong suit as an artist or a personality. In “Melissa Etheridge: My Window,” an autobiographical show now arriving at Circle in the Square after a successful off-Broadway run, she informs the audience that she was a “dramatic” child. It’s an unnecessary confession; this is the woman, after all, who came out to the public as a lesbian at an inaugural ball for President Clinton, then followed up her announcement later that year with an album titled “Yes I Am.”The rock star’s flamboyant earnestness endeared her to a swath of followers who would remain devoted long past her commercial heyday in the 1990s. More than a few were in attendance at a recent preview of her Broadway debut, cheering, hooting, and outright declaring their love as they might have at a concert.Like 2021’s “Springsteen on Broadway,” “My Window” finds its subject recounting a life through songs and anecdotes. If Mr. Springsteen is the bigger icon, he has also managed, largely, to lead a more private life; where his show dealt in reflection and intimate revelations — for those who hadn’t read his memoir, at least — Ms. Etheridge’s expands on information familiar to most followers of entertainment media, while also portraying details of her life before fame.A scene from ‘Melissa Etheridge: My Window.’ Jenny Anderson“My Window” is also a more patently theatrical production: Projection designer Olivia Sebesky embellishes Bruce Rodgers’s spare set with photos and other images tracing Ms. Etheridge’s journey from a young girl in Kansas, eager to play her guitar in any venue that would have her — including a prison, at one point (her supportive father accompanied her) — to a rock & roll heroine appearing in packed arenas and on magazine covers.Ms. Etheridge acknowledges an early love of Barbra Streisand and musicals such as “Godspell.” She dishes about youthful relationships and jobs; there are numerous references to lesbian bars, including one in which she performed, gaining her first attention from record company executives. She admits, with a candor rare among pop stars, that modest fame did not satisfy her; A-list celebrity was her goal.Accomplishing that mission left her unfulfilled, of course, and Act Two of “My Window” traces a search for self-fulfillment on a more spiritual level. If that sounds a little banal, the events that informed it were often not. There’s a wrenching passage in which Ms. Etheridge addresses the death of her elder son, who succumbed to an opioid overdose at 21 during the pandemic. “I could not find music anywhere,” she says.Crafted by Ms. Etheridge with her wife, the accomplished television writer Linda Wallem Etheridge, “My Window” generally doesn’t dwell on pathos; the star comes across as warm and funny. Not surprisingly, she uses the script as a template rather than following it word for word so that her approach seems conversational, if not entirely relaxed: This is a long-reliable professional working in a new medium, and you can feel her eagerness to please.Towards that end, Ms. Etheridge juggles her guitar duties with playing piano and drums. Her only musical accompaniment is provided by backing tracks on several numbers, though there is silent support from the actress and comedian Kate Owens, who, as “The Roadie,” pops up in comical bit parts while managing the instruments and various other props.Abigail Rosen Holmes’s concert-worthy lighting adds flash, although Ms. Sebesky furnishes the show’s most spectacular visuals during a trio of sequences evoking Ms. Etheridge’s journeys with mescaline, cannabis, and ayahuasca. An advocate for the responsible use of certain psychoactive substances — which she distinguishes from other drugs, including alcohol — she regards these trips as learning and healing experiences.“I can see that this life is filled with love and fear,” Ms. Etheridge resolves towards the end, “and it’s all about how I perceive it.” In “My Window,” she leads with love, dramatically and unabashedly.

Melissa Etheridge, for Whom Subtlety Was Never a Strong Suit, Leads With Love in Autobiographical Show on Broadway

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