Art and About

Kissless in New York: It's darker than Glee and giving Houston actors anoff-Broadway adventure

Photo by Joel Luks

Do you remember the first time you kissed? For real, I mean.

None of this slobber on the cheek business, but the first time you felt what it means to kiss someone you felt tingly about? That's one of those teenage milestones that begins a journey into the social complexities of adulthood.

Kissless — a musical taking shape right here in Houston that will make its debut at the 2011 New York Musical Theatre Festival off Broadway in six performances from Sept. 28 to Oct. 8 — might seem like it's a work about that specific moment, but it's much more than that.

Kissless may seem like the stereotypical, happy, Glee-esque musical, but its surprise and shocking ending morphs any carefree aura into lifelong lessons.

I found out how much more during a routine Art and About adventure.

Camera and microphone on hand, I went to the Houston Family Arts Center, where rehearsals are now in full swing. I got an opportunity to chat with the cast and learn about the play, the actors' aspirations and what it means to be debuting in New York.

Most shows at the New York Musical Theatre Festival are cast out of New York. This one is Houston based and mainly made up of young actors, from teenagers upwards to mid-twenties. Getting the chance to perform off-Broadway is something many seasoned performers dream of but never achieve.

Whatever the young hopefuls lack in experience, they are certainly making up in rehearsal hours, perfecting their characters' intentions and understanding their inner struggles, experimenting with blocking and improving their vocals.

At their age, they can really relate to the storyline and the themes of cliques — jocks, goths, nerds and rednecks — stereotypes, alienation and loss. On the surface, Kissless may seem like the stereotypical, happy, Glee-esque musical, but its surprise and shocking ending morphs any carefree aura into lifelong lessons that everyone — children, students and adults — need to learn, and relearn.

When Summer, a misfit goth, is forced to live with Derek, a hyper jock, their burgeoning romance causes angst and turmoil at Forest Glen High School. As the characters struggle to come to terms with their self-imposed labels and situations, youth naivete comes to a crashing halt with the discovery of a classmate's death.

Life, sometimes, doesn't go on. Seize today as tomorrow may just not be here. Live life to the fullest. That's the message that writer Chance McClain wanted to put forth in this genre mixer that brings pop, rock, country, traditional Broadway tunes and a dash of jazz hands together.

"I had a story inside that wanted to get out, the regular live life to the fullest story," McClain said. "An underlying theme is the loss of a teen. It's really sad and you never know how to deal with it. I wanted to find away to tell the story of how kids deal with death."

Kissless began as a short story in March 2010 before morphing into a musical last August. After staged readings at the Houston Family Art Center and Texas Repertory Theatre and some tweaks, the audience responded well — laughing when they were meant to laugh and crying during tender moments.

"The community is paying for us to go to New York," McClain said. "We are trying to raise $100,000 to send 27 performers plus the creative and the production team for two weeks. When people hear about our show, they realize there is something special here. That along with Houston pride, has earned us significant support."

To sponsor Kissless, interested donors can support the cast's efforts online or by participating in the musical's upcoming golf tournament at Wildcat Golf Club on Sept. 8.

For McClain, it is a dream come true.

"I feel humble and unworthy. It's happening and I just can't stop smiling."

The cast comments on going to New York:

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Movie Review

Big stars struggle for laughs in wedding film You're Cordially Invited

Photo by Glen Wilson

Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon in You're Cordially Invited

There’s something about weddings that comedy filmmakers love. From Four Weddings and a Funeral to The Wedding Singer to Wedding Crashers to Bridesmaids and beyond, the act of two people getting married provides plenty of opportunities for conflict, mixups, and mayhem on which comedies often thrive.

So the premise of You’re Cordially Invited, in which two weddings at a small island venue are accidentally booked on the same weekend, would seem to be rife with funny situations. Jim (Will Ferrell) is the single dad of Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan), while Margot (Reese Witherspoon) is the high-powered sister of Neve (Meredith Hagner). Both have a connection to the Palmetto Hotel, and both think they have secured the first Saturday in June for the wedding of their family members.

The confusion over finding out the venue has been double-booked is initially met with reason and compromise. But as the two wedding parties butt heads jockeying for position among the island’s limited resources, tempers start to flare, and both Jim and Margot start to lean toward sabotage. What’s supposed to be the happiest day of their lives for the brides turns into a nightmare for both as their loved ones try to find ways to get back at one another.

Written and directed by Nicholas Stoller (Neighbors, Bros), the film is heavily dependent on the talents of its two stars. The scenes in which Ferrell and Witherspoon face off are the most enjoyable, as each uses skills they’ve learned over their long careers to elevate the film. Unfortunately, Stoller seemed to put most of his effort into their scenes, as anything involving their characters’ friends and families falls flat.

Stoller actually sets up the various quirks and tensions between the two groups well, but it's the execution of the subsequent scenes that is lacking. Whether it’s the fault of the editing team or Stoller himself, the pacing of the film is way off. Some scenes are cut short before they reach a good resolution, and others are extended well past the point of being funny.

The film mostly suffers from giving too much in certain situations and not enough in others. Jenni has a mostly anonymous group of female friends, portrayed by actors who all seem to have been given instructions to act over the top at all times, a trait that is more annoying than amusing. On the other hand, the craziness that the film seems to promise with its central premise never materializes. The acts of sabotage by Jim and Margot are so tame that they can’t even be called entertaining, much less hilarious.

The performances in the film face diminishing returns the further you go down the cast list. Both Ferrell and Witherspoon are talented enough to get by on charm alone, and even if these are far from their best roles, it’s still fun to see them. Viswanathan and Hagner are both fine, but the rest of the cast is uniformly uninteresting and occasionally off-putting.

You’re Cordially Invited is a great example of past results not equaling future success. Given the good films that Ferrell, Witherspoon, and Stoller have made in the past, it should have been relatively easy for them to make a pleasant if forgettable wedding movie. Instead, it’s a mostly unfunny affair with only a few moments that rise to their talents.

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You're Cordially Invited is now streaming on Prime Video.

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