Nighttime Traffic

"It's like time has stopped, but it feels like a thousand years have gone by," says Max, one of the characters in "Nighttime Traffic," a new musical presented as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Unfortunately, he could be speaking for this critic's perception of the show as well as the altered reality Max and his boyfriend Calder are experiencing. This fantasy, featuring book, music, and lyrics by Alex Wyse, runs 90 minutes but feels twice that length. The bizarre plot stretches credulity to the breaking point: Max, a writer, and Calder, a teacher, both in their 20s, find their relationship put to the test when Calder passes out at the disco after a drug overdose and wakes up in the hospital to find he's scheduled for a heart transplant the next morning. But wait, it gets weirder.

A kindly nurse with magical powers and a caustic wit offers the lovers a pill that will make their remaining hours together seem like days. Wyse could have used this premise to explore his characters in depth and what they mean to each other, but he settles for clichés and melodrama. The conflict between the two—Max is flirty, frivolous, and not serious enough about his writing; Calder is tired of drugs and discos and wants to settle down—never feels serious or deep enough to merit all the symbolic sturm and drang. The hospital setting and references to drugs and early death made me think perhaps Wyse intended to explore the AIDS crisis, which is far from over, without addressing it directly. It would have been a stronger work if he had.

There are some compelling songs, delivered with conviction by the three-member cast, but the characters are so weakly developed that the score doesn't resonate. In addition, it feels like the show ends three different times. Wyse would have been wise to cut at least 20 minutes and gone for a tight one-act.

The three-member cast does its best to enliven the implausible, shallow material, and director Michael Lluberes gives it the sturdiest possible staging. Matt Dengler, as Max, and Jacob Hoffman, as Calder, both display strong pipes and proficient acting technique. But the show really belongs to Liz McCartney, as Audrey, the supernatural nurse. This Broadway veteran manages to make what is essentially a dramatic device into a living, breathing person. When she makes a dreamlike entrance in a glittery outfit and reveals the reason behind Audrey's mission to deliver comfort, it's a shatteringly real moment in a ridiculous fantasy. It's a pity McCartney wasn't given a stronger vehicle to display her talents.



Presented by Jason Haft and Eve Rybnick as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival
at Urban Stages, 259 W. 30th St., NYC. Sept. 29–Oct. 10. Remaining performances: Sat., Oct. 2, 8 p.m.; Sun., Oct. 3, 1 p.m.; Tue., Oct. 5, 4:30 p.m.; Sun., Oct. 10, 1 p.m. (212) 352-3101, (866) 811-4111, www.theatermania.com, or www.nymf.org. Casting by Michael Cassara.