Flesh or fluff, human or puppet? From April 18–20, Strings Attached, an original musical written by fourth-year Jefferson Lind, composed by fourth-years Adrian Lo and Althea Li, and co-directed by third-year Eleni Lefakis and Lind, performed to four sold out audiences at Theater West in the Logan Center. With witty songs, endless puns, juggling performances, and a fake bear, Strings Attached was an endearingly self-conscious musical about friendship, love, and whether or not we’re all really puppets.
The story follows Jason (Spencer O’Brien) as he works up the nerve to propose to his girlfriend of 10 years, Amy (Abigail Scharf). Jason is clumsy and sincere, and he lives with his brother and friend, the loyal and caring Walt (Joseph DePaula). Hoping to make a proposal that Amy can’t refuse, Jason hatches an ambitious plan to propose at the edge of Niagara Falls. The fate of this proposal (and of the idyllic landmark) is put in jeopardy when the characters learn that a comedic and stereotypical villain, oil baron Dallas (Robert Stimpson), is plotting to secure an oil reserve underneath the national landmark with a series of explosions.
But there’s a second plot in the works. Along this song-filled adventure of securing love and foiling evil, the characters wrestle with a deeper inquiry—who’s human and who’s puppet? For the audience, the fact that Walt is a puppet is made clear, if not by DePaula’s excellent physical comedy, then by the menacing Marionettist (Henry Kerrey), who plays a silly kind of God, and his two slapstick henchmen Hilton (Jacob Halabe) and Astoria (Maisie Thompson). Hoping to appease his wife, The Marionettist conspires to make Jason’s proposal happen by any means necessary. The Marionettist and his minions lend the production a sinister comedy that both relaxes the plot and adds much needed depth, prompting heavy questions about insecurity, agency, and begs the question—who’s pulling our strings?
Strings Attached carefully toes the line between comedy and sincerity, a difficult challenge for a three-hour musical, but one that the production embraces wholeheartedly. The actors handle the comedy deftly, keeping the production balanced and on its feet. Amidst the witty lyricism of Proposal Opposal, puppet pals DePaula and O’Brien are both lighthearted and heartwarming, and one can’t help but feel an endearing attachment toward them. Halabe and Thompson, The Marionettist’s henchmen, clearly have a background in comedy, and with a steely commitment to the bit, they help the musical’s moments of absurdity stay grounded—even as Halabe becomes the waves of the ocean, or Stimpson an angry bear, wearing a shirt emblazoned with the words “PRETEND I’M A BEAR.”
The question “human or puppet?” acts as the premise of Strings Attached and drives it forward. Wearing a beard that doesn’t seem to grow, Walt is plagued throughout the show by the existential angst that he might be a puppet. His fears ring true when his arm is torn and thrown over the edge of the Niagara Falls—revealing cotton stuffing underneath. However, Walt has a greater degree of agency than any of the other characters in the show, puppet or human. Jason is bound by his anxiety of proposing to Amy, while Dallas is bound by an ill-made promise to a group of second graders that he would one day finance their college education. Perhaps the real question that Strings Attached poses is whether “human or puppet?” is a question that matters when we all have strings attached to each other.
Explosive and unexpected moments are scattered throughout production, which works hard to keep the audience engaged. In the musical number “Oil Down There” (also rife with puns—a notable favorite: “Petroleum? I barely know him!”), Stimpson holds nothing back, even as he departs into a surprisingly smooth and measured rap performance. Scharf shines particularly bright as Amy, and she seizes the moment (and perhaps the show), in “Fermented Love,” a beautiful lament performed with high energy and a voice to match.
Care and creativity are two of Strings Attached’s strongest traits, evidenced by the unwavering commitment of the actors and the production team’s work. The band (Althea Li, Adrian Lo, Surya Chinnappa, Genevieve Evans, Peter Scheidt, Abby Kanes, Arjun Singh) perform an impressive range of musical styles with fluidity and are even shouted out by the actors during the show. The lighting design (Emily Curran) creates beautiful images and transforms moments of the performance, with breadth that steps up to the production’s wide range. It takes creativity to recreate everything from a quiet church scene to the cliffs of Niagara Falls to the depths of Walt and Jason’s psyche, all of which Curran does effortlessly in the small space of Theater West. Set design and digital projects (Emma Linderman and Yifan Zou) also creates a compelling visual metaphor, with a towering platform for The Marionettist and a large projection screen that embraces irony, displaying large, satirical messages like “THIS SHOW TAKES PLACE IN AN ALTERNATE REALITY WHERE ROMNEY WON THE 2012 ELECTION.”
Strings Attached, an 18-song musical, is above all, an ambitious undertaking. It is endearing in its content as well as its backstory. The culmination of an almost two-year journey, it began as a passion project for Jefferson Lind, director and book writer, who turned 25 prospective pages into writing a script that was “definitely not a bit,” he told the Maroon. After recruiting Althea Li and later Adrian Lo, co-musical directors and songwriters, the three worked tirelessly together in a constant loop of learning, revision, trust, and of course, cramming for deadlines.
“We rewrote almost every song,” Li said. Even after their inspiring and arduous journey, the writers remained full of energy and passion for Strings—in our interview, Lind couldn’t help but interject frequently with musings about what he wanted to do next with the musical.
Asked where they hope to take Strings Attached, Lind replied that they’d like to put on the show again, and Li is intent on adapting the music for a full orchestra. “I feel closer than ever to an ideal Strings,” Lind told us. For now, however, both are moving on to other projects. Lind is working on three more musicals, two about the state of Texas in different ways and one set in the world of Harry Potter on wizard boxing in the fifties, while Li is aiming for “capital C” composing and plans to write a chamber piece for string quartet.
In the end, Strings Attached wears many hats. It’s hilarious, absurd, touching, all of those things, and none of those things. “It’s as if it’s profound,” Lind told us, “and I don’t know what that means.”
