Love Kills, the Anti Book Musical? Not Hardly.

Love Kills
The 45th Street Theatre

Brooklyn based, Obie award winning, writer, Kyle Jarrow, comes to NYMF this year with a story about love, and murder. In Love Kills, Jarrow charts a map of two teenagers hearts through their murderous spree through Kansas in 1958. The scandalous, true life, killing spree was the basis for the Oliver Stone Movie Natural Born Killers, and Jarrow saw it as a means to bring the first ever "emo rock musical" to the stage.

Spinning this tale around the night that Charlie Starkweather (Eli Schneider) and Caril Anne Fugate (Marisa Rhodes) were brought into custody by Sheriff Meril Karnopp (John Hickok), allows Jarrow to explore the differences in teenage love and it's counterpart, mature love.
Bringing this show to life with the popular sound of emo (emotional) rock, was a bold choice for the Obie winner, but one that helps to feed the shows deeply emotional under current. When you're talking about angsty teenage love, emo seems the best way to go about it - if you are writing a show that you want a strictly younger audience to relate to. But, the question is this: Jarrow said in an interview that the traditional "book musical" were awkward and that, as a "taste thing" he didn't like them. The funny thing is, what Jarrow has created is a the traditional "book musical" with a slight twist, the music is anything but traditional.
If Jarrows aim was to create a musical that is counter to that of the traditional sect, then he failed, largely because all of the songs come from the plot, serving the same purpose as traditional musical theatre songs, bringing the character's feelings out in a way that couldn't be done with dialogue.
Don't get me wrong the show is wonderfully crafted, the plot linear, flashing back periodically to illustrate the evolution, not of the crimes, but of the characters. Jarrow has brings to life, and makes the audience feel for them, characters that are human, fully three dimensional. Whether the performances of said characters is three dimensional is up for debate. Schneider does a wonderful job, both with his singing and acting, of realize the troubled teen, Charlie. True, Schneider, has had the role for quite some time - he debuted the show in Boston - and should been more than comfortable in the characters shoes. Ms. Rhodes, despite her beautiful singing voice, leaves you wanted more form her character. It seems as if she is trying too hard to make us believe that she is a young teen, instead of believing that she herself is a young teen. It's like the rule of comedy, if you try to be funny you want be.
The one fault that arises from doing a strictly "emo rock musical" is that veterans of the traditional ilk, look awkward and most of the time sound awkward singing these songs. Hickok and his co star Deirdre O'Connell (Gertrude Karnopp), approach the music with an old school attitude, though they gallantly try to look comfortable in these new types of songs, and the look of the performance is skewed. The younger actors can lend their voices to this style of music, getting guttural and raspy, but it is much more difficult for the older sect, which brings the problem of the "emo rock musical" up. How do you do it without alienating the rest of the world and cast?
I think that Love Kills is another sign of the changing times. Theatre is belonging more and more to the youth of America, and the old ways are slowly fading into the sunset. It's nice to know though, that no matter how hard the new sect fights the old way, it still prevails, and the "book musical" will always be at the base of any great show.