Got weekend plans?

If you're still looking for something fun to do this weekend, let me suggest that you go to the Studio Theater here in Washington and watch their new production, This Beautiful City. The show premiered a couple of weeks ago, and will go to Los Angeles this fall and then move to Broadway after the first of the year.

Last Sunday, my neighbor Joel and I went to see the show, and it was a very enjoyable evening.

This Beautiful City is a rather unusual work that tells the story of Colorado Springs, Colorado, the "Vatican" of the Evangelical Christian movement in the United States, a Denver suburb sitting in the shadow of Pike's Peak. About two years ago, the ensemble and writers went to Colorado Springs to do on-site research and interviews in the run-up to the 2006 elections, thinking they were merely studying conservative Christianity. Fortuitously for them, during their residency, the scandal broke over the alleged drug use and homosexuality of Ted Haggard, national evangelical leader and the pastor/founder of the mega-megachurch, New Life, and that became the focus of their script. The show explores the growth of the evangelical movement in Colorado Springs, the evangelical scandals at the U.S. Air Force Academy, the Colorado anti-gay ballot measures, and, of course, the impact of Haggard's disgrace on his church and other religious institutions in town.

The cast is a three-man, three-woman ensemble called The Civilians, each actor doing multiple roles. The Civilians has done several other productions with a similar technique of research and interviewing to develop the scripts for those shows.

I'm not sure whether to call this show a "musical" or a "play with music." They seem to favor "play," yet there is a lot of music by composer/lyricist Michael Friedman—eleven big songs—so I tend to think of it as a "musical." They had a small instrumental ensemble on stage in the wings off stage right, and cast member Stephen Plunkett also played lead guitar during a lot of the songs as a part of his roles. The music, though, isn't a series of polished, production numbers, and there are not a lot of memorable tunes. Friedman was at his best crafting "praise songs" for the cast to sing when they were portraying members of New Life Church, and I could see those song being developed into actual church music. Some of the cast singing was a little shaky, but I couldn't tell if that was a performance weakness or if that was how the music was written. I really would need to see the show a second time.

The cast members were all very good in their portrayals of their various characters. Marsha Stephanie Blake stood out particularly as an accomplished and effective actress. As the lone African-American cast member, her multiple roles included both a troubled member of a large black Baptist church and the male pastor of that church. Her portrayals were full of depth, nuance, and stage presence, and I think you'll be hearing from her as a major television or motion picture actress in the future.

When I first got tickets to this show, I wasn't sure how they were going to handle the evangelical church members. Was this going to be a send-up of the evangelicals, full of caricatures and stereotypes? So many evangelicals act like caricatures in real life, what with their arm raising in prayer, their esoteric vocabulary, and their constant references to having to pray about every little mundane act in their lives. The cast and writers went to great lengths to try to be fair and balanced in what they were doing, so much so that I thought their portrayals were rather reserved compared to real-life evangelicals I know. The show definitely is not a satire or exposé about evangelicals.

It will be interesting to see how this show evolves during "try-outs" here in Washington and then later Los Angeles. It definitely needs to be trimmed and tightened (running time was about two hours, twenty minutes). There also is no sense of a plot line to the show; it's more of a newsy series of vignettes, with a few short story lines that are followed during the evening. Of course, the plotless musical is nothing new—after all, look at the success of Cats. And, while friction between evangelicals and non-evangelicals in Colorado Springs is noted, there is no "conflict" between any of the characters, except maybe the ongoing, real-life conflict between Ted Haggard and reality. So, with no real plot and no real conflict, once the show ends, the playgoer just leaves, with no sense of joy or sadness or catharsis.

Sets and costuming were simple. During much of the show, cast members merely traded hats or jackets to help establish their current character. The main backdrop of the set is a huge aerial photograph of the city with Pike's Peak in the background. On the sides of the stage are large projection screens much like those used in big evangelical churches to project song words or the preacher during the sermon. The show used the screens for other photographs and diagrams to illustrate what was being discussed, including some actual press photos of Ted Haggard as his scandal was unfolding. Lighting design, also, tended towards the simple, creating both standard stage lighting during the expository dialogue and mimicking church stage lighting during the worship service scenes.

This Beautiful City is a fun show and will provide you with an entertaining evening (or afternoon). I wouldn't mind seeing it again. So, if you don't have anything else planned this weekend, go to Studio Theater.