Entering Ars Nova for a performance of The Wildness: Sky-Pony's Rock Fairy Tale, has all the makings of an underground rock show, rather than a traditional piece of musical theatre. Audience members are handed colored pieces of fabric that will then serve as blindfolds (don’t ask, but it’s really cool!) or ties depending on your style mood, and as people are directed to color-coded sections of the space, they are most likely to engage in conversation with the stranger next to them, if only to ponder on what they think they’re about to see. The show itself is a fairy tale/rock show/performance art extravaganza that combines two fictitious plots and at times has band members playing versions of themselves, playing fairy tale characters unsure of who they actually are. It’s meta and fabulous!
Sky-Pony founding members Kyle Jarrow and Lauren Worsham (who also wrote the text, featuring songs by Jarrow) are wonderful as usual, but they let the rest of the ensemble shine in their own right, which makes for an overall generous, extraordinarily enjoyable piece. The one thing one can’t help but wonder is how do Jarrow and Worsham find the time to do so much? Jarrow, who always seems to be working on a million different things is currently in the process of writing the book for The SpongeBob Musical, Sky-Pony have also just released their LP titled Beautiful Monster, and the pair are also expecting their first child! With all of this going on, Jarrow still found the time to speak to me on the phone, and we discussed fairy tales, Sondheim, artistic legacy and even cast the band in another show. I would not be surprised if we heard they’re doing a production of that soon...
I actually spoke to Lauren in the summer of 2015 and she mentioned you guys were up in Martha’s Vineyard working on a Sky-Pony project, was this the fruit of those seeds?
That’s right, in May we went up there for five days, Ars Nova has a residency there at the Vineyard Arts Project, so we went up there along with the director Sam Buntrock, and an actress who ended up not doing the show because she had a baby, so yeah, that was what we worked on.
Time flies! Why do you think fairy tales still remain so fascinating? We’re seeing a return of fairy tales for grownups in movies and theatre…
That’s interesting, you’re right. I can’t say we’d really thought about it being a zeitgeist sort of thing, but it kind of is. I guess what I would say is the theme we explore in the show: we live in a very uncertain world that’s full of a lot of doubt and very complicated forces, and there’s something about fairy tales that feels simple and easy to understand in a way the real world isn’t. I think maybe in troubling times there’s something about their moral simplicity.
The show touches on mortality in a very moving, strange way, without ever feeling morbid. It seems the way most art deals with death is by either ignoring it or being terrified of it, but you’re saying: you know what, we’ll die but it’ll be fine, let’s have some fun in the meantime...
(Laughs) I’m so glad that’s what you got out of it, because that’s exactly what we wanted to get across. Look, death is something we all have to deal with, eventually each of us personally, but also in our lives, it’s interesting, a lot of the early fairy tales all deal with mortality, they have orphaned characters. Death is hard for us to understand and we try to process and understand them through fairy tales. I’m also glad it didn’t feel morbid, because that was not the intention.
I kept thinking how in the moments when you do the Oversharing, the audience responds with a Sondheim-ism by saying “you are not alone”. It’s like musical theatre turned into a literal church!
It’s funny, it didn’t occur to us initially when we wrote that “you are not alone” line that it was like the line from Into the Woods, but one of the actors pointed it out to us, and we loved it! That’s a wonderful show, it’s also about fairy tales, so it’s nice there’s that resonance there for anyone who wants to get it. I’m glad you got it, so 10 points to you.
Thank you! I also liked how interactive the show was, the audience needs to put a lot of themselves into it, to get the most out of the experience…
I think we did this for two reasons, the first is we started out as a rock band and audiences tend to interact with rock bands in a much more interactive way than with theatre. People in rock concerts sing along and dance, so we’re used to that from our club gigs, and we wanted to bring that energy into a theatre piece. It’s strange to do a rock thing without that energy, the other motivation was that we’re playing with these ideas of ritual and the telling of stories, and how storytelling is a ritual act, which is what church is. In order to really gesture towards that kind of tradition, we needed to come up with our own “call and response”, which is something religions have in common. We also played with different amounts, in previews there was a lot more of that, but at certain moments we felt it got in the audience’s way, so I hope we hit the right spot.
Artists tend to be more self-aware about legacy, and going back to Sondheim, you have your unborn child onstage with you. Has this show made you think more about legacy?
I’ve definitely thought about the fact our child is onstage, and we’ll be able to show him pictures of the show and tell him “that’s you in your mom’s belly!”, so yes I’ve thought about that, but I can’t say I think a lot about my artistic legacy. When an audience member spoke about that during the Oversharing, I couldn’t say I relate to that really. Maybe I’m not old enough? Perhaps as I age, I’ll think about that more? But to be honest with you, it’s hard for me to think about more than one year ahead in the future, thinking about legacy is overwhelming. I try to make the best version of whatever I’m working on in the moment, and hope that ends up making part of an awesome legacy.
Your big break came with A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, which is pretty dark in a great way, and The Wildness is obviously quite dark too, I’m sure you’ll turn in a great SpongeBob!
That is very nice of you to say, I hope you’re right. I think it’s actually pretty great, it’s a fun show, I’m proud of my work and I’m excited for the world to see it. From your lips to god’s ears, it's going to be awesome.
How is to write a book that will feature songs by different artists?
I’ve done it before, I’ve worked with Duncan Sheik on two different shows we’ve been developing, and on both of those I wrote the book, but he wrote the songs, so I’m used to that. What’s interesting about SpongeBob is it’s all different writers, and that I’ve never done before. We’re lucky we have Tom Kitt as the Musical Supervisor, so he makes sure all the songs fit together, it’s a tough job because he needs to make sure the songs are true to that artist’s unique voice, but also make sure it feels coherent enough that it feels like a score. A lot of kudos go to him, because he’s hit a sweet spot. My job has been to find a way to give the writers a sense of what their song needs to accomplish in the show, and also to write the book around the songs so that it feels organic, not that like the action stops. I was scared we’d get songs that were great but didn’t work dramatically, because they’re rock bands, but believe it or not, that has not been the case. The songs are great pop songs, but also need what they need to do in terms of the story.
Sam also directed the UK tour of The Rocky Horror Show, which The Wildness reminded me a lot about. Let’s say Sky-Pony could take on starring in their own version of a classic Broadway musical, what would it be?
(Laughs) I mean honestly, is it cheating to say Rocky Horror would be a pretty good show? We actually talked a lot about Rocky Horror, not the play but the movie because it also has that ritual audience interaction. People come dressed up and repeat lines, there’s something about that show that’s almost like a ritual, so yeah if we could do a show that’s it.
The Wildness: Sky-Pony's Rock Fairy Tale is presented by Ars Nova in collaboration with The Play Company. The show has been extended through March 26, for tickets and more click here.
