Being a teenager is not easy; with hormones streaming through your system with little regard for your social life, grades or self-esteem, and the fear of discovering you don’t belong in any of the acceptable cliques because you have too much acne or too little money, it can truly be a time of endless pain and despair. It doesn’t help that teenagers must also deal with bullies and the eternal temptation of developing alcohol and drug addiction, not to mention an eating disorder. The one true thing about adolescence, is that it’s not a time people want to look back on, unless they were prom king or queen. Otherwise it’s a strange limbo between childhood and adulthood, which most are happy to have survived.
Therefore while the intentions in the musical One Day are quite sweet and admirable, the execution is so out of synch with its audience, that sitting through it at times feels like an endurance test comparable to after school detention. The show opens with an energetic number in which we meet the rather large ensemble, all of whom are members of a “tribe” that gets together “a few times a week to write”. There’s a sassy Asian girl (Charlotte Mary Wen) courting a shy boy (Ben Shuman), a “bad boy” (Aaron Scheff) who wears plaid and drinks beer, a tough looking Latina DJ (Nyseli Vega), a dimwitted, pigtail-sporting blonde (Chase O’Donnell) and a colorful young man (Marco Ramos) whose unique clothing and mannerisms hint at him being gay (which of course he is…).
The thing is that the show never allows these characters to become anything other than stereotypes, instead of feeling like a multicultural, diverse cast, the ensemble reeks of tokenism, for there is nothing memorable about the characters other than what they look like. It doesn’t help that the music and lyrics by Michael Sottile are so safe and politically correct that they seem like they’ve been pulled out of 1980s public service announcements (“is that true in my relationship with myself”, “anything is possible if you believe in it”, “one day my heart will have its world premiere”), and yet perhaps the show’s biggest mistake is failing to recognize the needs of its target audience. While the themes and subjects will be fascinating and appropriate for teenagers, adults sitting through the two hour show will feel like they’ve just been lectured by dancers and strobe lights. Similarly, the music and style of the show feel too passé to be attractive to teenagers.
