Jack Perry is Alive (and Dating)

The hero of "Jack Perry Is Alive (and Dating)" is cynical about his chances for finding love in hard-hearted New York—a city which is nothing like the romantic paradise portrayed in the movies, he tells us. Nevertheless, he has a group of friends who apparently have nothing else to do except to worry about Jack and urge him to continue looking for love.

Even though Jack happens to be openly gay, it's inevitable the plot will remind you of another musical about a single guy and his crazy, married friends, namely George Furth and Stephen Sondheim's landmark "Company." It's also unfortunate, because it puts the show at a distinct disadvantage. However, the comparison is the least of the problems of this show, with book and lyrics by Harrison David Rivers and Daniella Shoshan and music by Julia Meinwald.

The score, played by a four-piece band, is a fairly lackluster assortment of slight pop-styled show tunes that rarely relieve the one-note monotony of the book. Jack is lonely, unhappy and closed off; his chums keep telling him he must open up. "You don't catch fish, if you don't go fishing," he's told over and over again, or in words to that effect. The story attempts to generate some suspense when Jack receives an unsigned text message from an apparent past lover who still yearns for him. His attempts to trace down the sender have him cabbing around the city, while his friends wait anxiously on their phones for the results. Then there's a predictable happy ending.

The piece has been competently mounted. The central role is played by a performer named Jack Perry. Whether this is meant to convey anything special I can't tell you. However, Perry the actor is a stalwart-looking guy with a potentially charming persona, but the character's persistent self-pitying petulance, as expressed in monologues and one dispiriting ballad after another, quickly becomes tiresome. Charles Baskerville, Melissa Joyner, Jake Loewenthal, and Josh Sauerman play his friends and various other characters capably. Pirronne Yousefzadeh's staging makes imaginative use of set designer Matt Brogan's handful of pieces to suggest various locales, nicely aided by Brogan's projections. But Amy Pedigo-Otto's drab costumes do little to dispel the show's ultimate tediousness.

Presented by Justin Huebener as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre, 2162 Broadway, NYC. Oct. 5–15. Remaining performances: Sat., Oct. 8, 4:30 p.m.; Tue., Oct. 11, 8 p.m.; Thu., Oct. 13, 4:30 and 8 p.m.; Sat., Oct. 15, 8 p.m. (212) 352-3101 or www.nymf.org.