Atlantic: America and the Great War - Set Sail and Discover its Wonders

Atlantic: America and the Great War @ Assembly Hall

America and the Great War was written in collaboration between The American Music Theatre Project at Northwestern University in Chicago, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and musical theatre partnership Noisemaker. America and the Great War is one part of a two part collaboration between these groups; the other musical Atlantic: A Scottish Story plays on alternate days from America and the Great War. I was unable to see A Scottish Story. However, I was told that they are not written as one show, but linked thematically.

Atlantic: America and the Great War centers around two sisters at the end of World War 1. As one of the sisters goes missing as an on duty nurse during a skirmish, the other must follow the clues to find out what happened to her.

The Book and Lyrics were written by Ryan Bernsten and Desiree Staples; composer Christopher Anselmo. The music for this show was breathtaking. The sound is very reminiscent of a Jason Robert Brown or Steven Schwartz production. It had beautiful moments that ebbed and flowed like the ocean that was such a key figure in the story. I found myself overcome with emotions from the effectiveness of the orchestration; Bravo to Christopher for creating a strong foundation to float the narrative into the sunset.

The story itself was a bit formulaic at points, but also very sweet. The problem I had with it as a whole was how fast the story flies by, making it difficult to follow what’s happening. Ryan and Desiree cram everything and the kitchen sink into the allotted hour time slot; which is hard because a musical like this would traditionally be around 2 hours plus. So, while I can understand the need to put so much in for the sake of a complete narrative arc, I feel like the show can never entirely find its footing. I hope that this show is workshopped further into a full length musical as the content is solidly there, and with more time to fully develop the characters, there could be a real stunner of a piece.

The performances and voices in this show were top notch, not an off key in the bunch. Abigail Stephenson as Annabelle was a particular stand out; however, her voice at times seemed fatigued with the vocal gymnastics she was required to do within an hour time span. But, she shines as the meek older sister coming into her own. Neal Davidson was also stellar. He has Broadway leading man all over him and wouldn’t be surprised to see his name in a Broadway house in the near future.

Atlantic: America and the Great War was by far the best new American Style Musical I saw at the Fringe this year, and I wish them the best of luck and all the best for this piece going forward.