YOU’LL BE BEAU’LD OVER By Peter Filichia
You’d think that someone who refers to his grandfather as Pop Pop would be a little kid.
No. In the current off-Broadway musical hit BEAU, the grandson is in his 20s, if not 30s.
He’s Ace Baker. Many of us became acquainted with him six years ago, when a pre-production album was released of BEAU’S country-rock score. We admired what had been achieved by Douglas Lyons, who wrote the lyrics and co-composed the music with the equally able Ethan D. Pakchar.
Comparatively few musicals get recordings after a tiny regional production, but BEAU had been well-received enough in its 2019 debut at the Adirondack Theatre Festival that Masterworks Broadway was interested. As a result, many of us who came to St. Luke’s Theatre already knew the songs. Some patrons have become such BEAU-buffs that they were mouthing the words along with the performers.
The casual atmosphere probably encouraged attendees to do just that. Daniel Allen has made St. Luke’s into one of those rustic dive joints where old posters of previous musical attractions and even older license plates dot the walls. Up front is a stage on which eight musicians step forward every now and then to play the characters in Ace Baker’s story.
Ace is portrayed by Matt Rodin, who appeared on two tracks of that original cast album. We never discover the character’s real name – unless his mother Raven did name him Ace, hoping that he’d become a leader of the pack.
He takes us back to the fast five years between 12 and 17, when he had difficulty growing up in a single-mother household. As he says early on, “Who’s going to teach me how to fight back?”
It’s something Ace needs to know, because bigger and stronger classmate Ferris will harass him morning, noon, afternoon and night.
Ferris, though, has another side to him. We learn a surprising fact when Ace reveals a sentence that has probably never been said in any musical – and we’re going back to THE BLACK CROOK 159 seasons ago: “My bully was my first kiss.”
(And Ace didn’t initiate it.)
Not having a father and male role model is enough of a hardship, but to make matters worse, Ace doesn’t have grandparents, either. As many of us have learned, our parents’ parents are the ones we run to after our mom and/or dad have castigated us for this, that and the other thing. While our parents are still furiously yelling, our grandparents rush forward to hug us and reassure us that it’s all right. Do they actually love us more than our parents? They certainly seem to.
As it turns out, Ace does have a grandfather, although Raven had told him that her father had died long ago. Only to her, though: decades earlier, Raven had ghosted Beau from her life.
(We’ll see that she has her reasons.)
A most unexpected phone call lets Ace know that a still-alive Beau could be part of his life. Trouble is, Beau lives more than 200 miles away from Ace’s Memphis home. Nevertheless, 12-year-old Ace finds the money to take a bus to a Nashville hospital where Beau is convalescing.
Beau recovers, partly because Ace gives “my new grandpa” something to live for. Although there are many fine songs in the score, the one that seems to be mentioned first and foremost is “By Your Side.” Beau had written it a dozen years earlier as a song of introductory love that he wanted to sing to his new grandson after he’d heard that he had one.
Needless to say, a newborn would not be able to appreciate the lyrics that were sung to him: “If you slip, don’t worry; I’ll reach right on down and pick you up… I know you’ll bring me joy.”
Not for a dozen years, Ace won’t. Twelve years earlier, when Beau called Raven, she was not ready to commute the lifetime sentence that she had handed him. Even the line that makes us feel so sorry for him – “Raven, I can’t make things right if you won’t let me” – fails to reach her stone-deaf ears.
Nevertheless, Beau still has a framed picture of Raven in his bedroom.
So, “By Your Side” and its rejection was a reason why Beau stopped playing the guitar and writing songs. He had been one of those musicians who bonds so much with his instrument that he felt inspired to give it a name: Rosetta. And though he planned to play Rosetta as long as his fingers could caress the strings and frets, that all ended when Raven rejected him.
Now, with Ace finally entering his life, Beau experiences a renaissance. When Beau sings “By Your Side,” Ace is touched that after all these years, his grandfather remembers every word, chord and note.
Here’s one of our favorite themes: Art Heals. Ace says Beau “gave me the love he could not give himself.” Meanwhile, the lad becomes a chip off the older block and begins learning the guitar. He also finds that he and Beau have so much more in common than he could have ever assumed. Considering the “Ooohs!” and eyebrows-rases from the audience when all was revealed, many theatergoers didn’t, either.
If you attend, you, too, will have the chance to see your fellow theatergoers’ reactions, thanks to a thrust-stage production. No matter where you’re seated, you can see the people across from you. Are their arms folded squarely in front of them as a sign of resistance? Or are they leaning forward, anxious to hear the next words? And at least for those seated in the first row, you’ll be able to see whose feet are keeping time with the music.
Many do.
With every performer coming into the aisles, placing themselves on both your left and right, the score comes across as if it’s in stereophonic sound. (Of course, the cast album offers that, too.)
What’s most astonishing is seeing the terrific backup musicians put down their instruments, step forward and become actors who portray the characters in Ace’s life. Funny; some years back when director John Doyle had actors double as instrumentalists in Sondheim’s shows and other musicals, many balked at the concept. And yet, we readily accept the idea of a band members in a bar putting their instruments aside, stepping forward and becoming characters.
Deep into the 110-minute musical, Ace – though now an accomplished musician – tells Beau, “I don’t sing in front of people.” He didn’t, but you and the other attendees will be very glad that he got over that fear.
Peter Filichia can be heard most weeks of the year on www.broadwayradio.com. His new day-by-day wall calendar – A SHOW TUNE FOR TODAY – 366 Songs to Brighten Your Year – is now available on Amazon and The Drama Book Shop.
