JOHN & JEN

When Love Hurts – or – Hate Feels Like the Taste of Tomatoes

At: The Swift Creek Mill Theatre, 17401 U.S. Route One, Chesterfield, VA 23834

Performances: September 7-28, 2024

Ticket Prices: $44-49. Ask about discounts for students, seniors, and veterans.

Info: (804) 748-5203 or https://www.swiftcreekmill.com

Until a few weeks ago I had never heard of JOHN & JEN and I usually do not read about a show prior to seeing it in order to remain as unbiased as possible when I do see it. But now that I have seen this heart-warming sung-through musical, created for a cast of two actors playing three roles, it has earned a place as one of the most memorable musicals I’ve ever seen. [See the addendum at the end of this review!]

JOHN & JEN started out as a 10-minute musical – a labor of love created by two artists – a composer and a lyricist – who wanted to work together. Their 10-minute work became a full one-act musical, and eventually a second-act was added, with a twist that proved to be a natural outgrowth of the first act.

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT

It’s difficult to talk about JOHN & JEN without giving away the plot twist, so if you plan to see this show and want to be surprised, I suggest you stop reading now and come back to finish after you’ve seen the show. This little discussion starter will still be here.

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT

JOHN & JEN is a story of familial love and dysfunction. It is a multi-generational tale that spans nearly 4 decades, from 1952 to 1990, and is liberally sprinkled with social references that define each era. JOHN & JEN is also a story of family trauma and the resulting fallout. Most of all, JOHN & JEN is the story of a brother and sister and an inextricably linked story of a mother and son, a story of learning to let go in order to move on.

Nicole Pearson plays the role of Jen, and Malcolm Holmes plays the roles of John – and that’s not a typo, but it is the spoiler.

Act 1 opens with young Jen welcoming her baby brother “Welcome to the World” offers words of caution about the dangers he may face, and promises to always protect him. As we watch the two grow up, we learn that all is not well in this household – at least, not as seen through the eyes of Jen who seems to shoulder adult-level responsibilities at a very early age. It is Jen who explains why Santa can’t come one year. It is Jen who dominates a hilarious game of playing school, where we learn about George Washington and his dog Martha crossing the parted waters of the Potomac River. Yet, despite her best intentions to never leave her little brother, Jen seems to jump at the chance to leave home to attend college in New York where she quickly finds her tribe among the community of hippies and Viet Nam draft dodgers. It is this last that causes an irreparable rift.

Malcolm Holmes plays the role of the young John with an uncanny mastery of the nuances of a young boy that manages not to appear mocking or dismissive. While both  Pearson and Holmes bring a sort of “every-man” energy to their roles, by which I mean they lull us into feeling we know these people, there is one scene that really  resonated with me. When 12 year old John begged 17 year old Jen to take him with her when she leaves for college, I was transported back to a time when my 5 year old son would suddenly burst into tears because he missed his 18 year old sister who was attending college in another state. This is the kind of energy Lippa and Greenwald wrote into JOHN & JEN. It is the kind of energy Tom Width brought to his direction, and it is the essence of the energy Pearson and Holmes manifested throughout the play.

While there are clear mile markers along the way, one thing JOHN & JEN never does is tell us where the family lives, leaving the door open for it to be wherever you live or lived at that time. The play takes us on a stroll through memory lane – or along the paths of history, depending on your age. 1964 is a Beatles collage. 1966 is an increased US presence in southeast Asia.  1967 is the “summer of love” and the Generation Gap. 1968 is Richard Nixon – and Jen has missed 2 years of John’s baseball games and Dad says you don’t love us anymore. 1969 is men walking on the moon and the NY Mets win the World Series.

John and Jen part on less than good terms, Jen to move to Canada with her draft dodging boyfriend and John to join the Navy. Act 1 ends with Jen unfolding a flag and draping it over a box as an uncharacteristically silent figure of John, wearing dress whites, observes from a distance. Pearson’s facial expressions and body language tell the subplot of the words that emerge from her throat. Holmes’ general exuberance make his moments of quiet watching and discernment all the more poignant.

In Act 2 we see a reprise of Jen singing her “Welcome” song over a cradle, but this time the cradle holds her son, also named John. As Jen’s son grows, she makes the same promises to protect him she once made to her brother, even showering her son with her brother’s old clothes and toys, something this new generation John cannot relate to. As the years pass, Jen seem incapable of distinguishing between the two Johns, finally reaching the point of breakdown – or breakthrough – as she sits perusing a photo album. That, along with a visit to her brother’s grave on what would have been his 32^nd birthday, jars Jen to accept a new reality and to finally move on. This come out as the final song, “Every Good-bye is Hello.”

For those who – inexplicably – do not like musicals, JOHN & JEN may not be for you. This is, after all, a sung-through musical in which most of the dialogue is sung rather than spoken, straddling that gray line you may never have known existed between musical and opera. Not only is it a musical, but it is also a two-person musical, so there are no distractions, no avoiding the fact that even simple statements are sung. But – and this is a big but – Pearson and Holmes are fantastic singers!

I’ll say it again, Pearson and Holmes are fantastic singers. They are really, really, really, really, really good! And while I don’t know the technical terms (I was a dance major, not a theater or music major), their voices are clear and they have the ability to lift you with them when they soar, to drag you down with them when they mourn, and to make you smile and feel hope when they harmonize. This is even more amazing in that Lippa and Greenwald did not write the kind of toe tapping sing-along songs that audiences find themselves humming for days or months after. This is music in the role of a character that moves us through the acts and scenes. This is music that entertains, but does so almost peripherally as it marches along doing the job of immersing the audience in the telling of the story.

Width also, as he usually does, executed the scenic design. The set for JOHN & JEN is an attic with its steep walls and rough-hewn beams and shelving. Just as Holmes and Pearson infuse their characters with a sense of familiarity, so Width does with the set. There are boxes and bins, errant toys, a boom box, books, a clothing rack, camping equipment, a poster of Michael Jackson, along with most of the props the two actors will need. I felt like I was back in my great aunt’s attic where I used to play as a child, and found myself scanning the corners to see if I would find her old Singer sewing machine hiding there.

During his pre-show curtain talk, Width remarked that JOHN & JEN is a show that is much loved by theatre professionals, but little known to audiences. It is an unexpected treasure worth sharing.

FYI: Hate feels like

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Julinda D. Lewis, EdD is a dancer, teacher, and writer who was born in Brooklyn, NY and now lives in Eastern Henrico County. When not writing about theater and dance, she teaches dance history at VCU and low impact dance fitness classes to seasoned movers like herself, and occasionally performs. Her most recent (ad)venture was the premiere of a solo work, The Waters of Babylon or Psalm 137 Revisited: a Post-Exodus Reflection in Movement Choreographed From Collective Memories for the debut of the Critical Race Theatre Project.

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JOHN & JEN

Music by Andrew Lippa

Lyrics by Tom Greenwald

Book by Tom Greenwald and Andrew Lippa

John & Jen premiered at the Goodspeed Opera House,

East Haddam, Connecticut in 1993

Directed by Tom Width

CAST

Malcolm Holmes as John

Nicole Pearson as Jen

CREATIVE TEAM

Directed by Tom With

Musical Direction by Paul Deiss

Scenic Design by Tom Width

Lighting Design by Joe Doran

Costume Design by Maura Lynch Cravey

Technical Direction by Liz Allmon

Setting:

Somewhere in the USA and Canada, between 1952 and 1990

Run Time:

About 90 minutes with 1 intermission

Tickets:

Regular $44-49. Discounts for Seniors, Military & Veterans

Photographer: Daryll Morgan Studios

ADDENDUM: OMG. I was just reminded that I reviewed the Richmond premiere of this work in 2018 at HATTheatre! I had 4 surgeries and 20 radiation treatments in 2018 so my memory of that year may be more than a little bit clouded. Here is a link to that review, offering a totally different view of this show.

JOHN & JEN: A Musical of Second Chances