Ted Shen, the librettist, lyricist and composer of A Second Chance which had its world premiere in 2011 is a notable theatre enthusiast who left his job on Wall Street in the late nineties to make a contribution to something he was passionate about. Along the way he’s helped to fund productions with his largesse, including last year’s Fun Home and going all the way back to the 2004 revival of Sondheim’s Assassins. When A Second Chance made its world premiere in 2011 it was something of a second chance for this former businessman who had put his love for music aside for business. Two years later the show gets an official cast recording, which is a good representation of the mostly sung-through show. The fact that the score itself is not impeccable doesn’t make the story any less sweet.
The two-person stage-show has become a great way of representing romantic relationships on stage – from I Do, I Do to Marry Me A Little to The Last Five Years and now Ted Shen’s A Second Chance, in which a widowed banker and a recently divorced art enthusiast meet one evening at the party of a mutual friend. He’s reluctantly there, she’s looking for love. Both are cagey but intrigued by the other. Over time a relationship develops. The musical tracks the first year of their relationship, the awkward first attempts, the connections made, her neuroses, his guilt about abandoning his dead wife’s memory. It doesn’t feel a spoiler to say they work it out in the end. The recording of the mostly sung through show retains much of the dialogue to give us a clear picture of the story. And that story, for all its warmth, seems slightly indistinct, if pleasant.
As a debut work Shen’s score is admirable but the effortful nature of much of the score evokes a sense that counteracts the air of naturalness this sort of musical would seem to rely on. In its premiere A Second Chance was billed as a lyrical duet and it’s easy to see why. The 22 song-cycle with the piano as the main accompaniment throughout wants to evoke a feeling of seamlessness which Shen’s music, although sometimes too perfunctory, mostly manages to achieve. It’s the lyrics which sometimes threaten to upend the song-cycle's penchant for self awareness. What makes Shen’s score so intriguing, though, is the way his most striking moments can come from moments that seem like they ought not to work. In early standout “The Museum Song” for example, the proclivity for literalness in his lyrics becomes a great effect in a song which manages to amuse and even get away with a winking nod to Stephen Sondheim. Invoking the name of Sondheim should be a death knell but the number’s playfulness makes it work.
A playfulness that the duo at the center are quick to find whenever they can. The most intriguing aspect of the cast recording might be that the leads are played by married duo Brian Sutherland and Diane Sutherland. They sing together like an old married couple in the best of ways, with gentle familiarity suggested from the opening number. More importantly, though, two decades ago Diane - then Diane Fratantoni - appeared as Amalia as a replacement for Judy Kuhn on the She Loves Me revival cast recording. It’s a joy to hear how her voice has developed in the years and how she’s as vocally lively now as she was then. Jenna’s idiosyncrasies make her a more entertaining character to listen to than her male counterpart and Diane is a joy to listen. Over time the recording seems essential just for the chance to hear her sing. The harmless pleasantness of the couple's meanderings take a backseat when the recording reaches its height on a song not directly tied to the romance. The haunting “Lullaby”, near the middle of the album, is confident and lingering and is the best suggestion of Shen’s ability as a composer and the strongest moment of the score. It’s the kind of song you’d conceivably expect to hear becoming an auditioning favorite.
If Shen continues writing, A Second Chance feels like the sort of album that will become an essential recording of where he started. Like all Ghostlight releases the production is pristine. Moments like an awkward argument where the couple argue about the pros and cons of Pete Campbell from Mad Men threaten to waylay the charm Shen is working for, but in its way the recording's focus on tracking the life of a couple through minutiae feels significant in its own way. At its best, when it matches the enthusiasm of its leads, the genuineness of the story it tells reminds us why second chances are important.
Check out the Making-Of the Cast Recording below:
