The exciting news emanating from the York Theatre Company is that Laurence Mark Wythe, a talented new musical theater artist, has arrived on the scene. For his musical "Tomorrow Morning," which is currently running at the York, he has written book, lyrics, and music and succeeded at the formidable feat of creating a piece in which all three elements shine with sparkling craftsmanship and quality. If this is a harbinger of work to come, musical theater is fortunate to have discovered him.
The news about "Tomorrow Morning," however, is not as exciting. Though smart and pleasant from moment to moment, the show is lukewarm and unoriginal overall. The premise, a couple poised on the eves of their marriage and, 10 years later, their divorce, is promising, but Wythe brings nothing new to it. The show never slips into cliché or tedium, but at the same time Wythe doesn't allow his characters to act in unpredictable ways or their emotions to boil over and threaten their deepest beliefs or our weakly engaged attention. Instead, he is content to tell us what we already know (or hope), which is that love can overcome all obstacles.
To tell his time-spanning story, Wythe employs two sets of actors to portray the couple at each end of the intervening decade. On the eve of her wedding, Kat discovers that she's pregnant. However, when she tells her fiancé, Jack, he walks out on her. At the same time that these events transpire on stage, Catherine (older Kat) and John (older Jack) bicker over their divorce settlement. When their 10-year-old son, Adam, temporarily disappears, they realize that they still care for each other. In the end, Jack returns to Kat, and John and Catherine reconcile.
The quartet of Autumn Hurlbert as Kat, D.B. Bonds as Jack, Mary Mossberg as Catherine, and Matthew Hydzik as John is thoroughly winning. They bring dimension to characters that could have turned into stereotypes in the hands of lesser actors. Tom Mullen's sure-handed direction keeps the action flowing briskly, so that we don't notice how insubstantial the proceedings are, and Lorin Latarro provides a few moments of simple but welcome choreography. Wythe, Dougal Irvine, Matt Brind, and Brett Rowe contribute tasty orchestrations for piano, bass, drums, and guitar.
"Tomorrow Morning" won a Joseph Jefferson Award in Chicago in 2009, proving that a musical doesn't have to be filled with screaming guitars, atonal scores, or self-referential jabs at musical theater to be laudable. While I wish the show were deeper and fresher, I do find Wythe's modest and simple affirmation of the power of love to be comforting. While such a notion may be pure wish fulfillment, it's nice to hear every once in a while.
Presented by the York Theatre Company and Hilary A. Williams at the Theatre at St. Peter's, 619 Lexington Ave., NYC. March 30–April 23. Schedule varies. (212) 935-5820 or www.yorktheatre.org. Casting by Geoff Josselson.