Hurricane

New York Musical Theatre Festival, Musical

Location: Theater at St. Clements

by Ben

BOTTOM LINE: A lot going on with awesome talent at many levels. The story is still coming together, but it's worth checking out if you can score a ticket.

With a cast of 30 (yeah, 30) Hurricane is quite an impressive piece of musical theater. The play is based on a true story of a Level 5 hurricane that devastated southern New England in 1938. The majority of the story takes place in a New England town before and after the storm. The play also follows the story of a junior meteorologist battling it out with his supervisor at The National Weather Bureau in Washington DC about whether the storm is a legitimate prediction or not.

There is some fine acting throughout the production and the music is also quite good. The only real challenge I had with the show is that there were too many stories going on and I never really knew what I was supposed to follow.

There were many moments of fresh musical theater that were really entertaining. One scene in particular with a bus driver played by Steven Watts and a group of kids driving him nuts was engaging a lot of fun to watch. I also loved the scene at the National Weather Bureau with TJ Mannix and Steven Booth. Every time the story returned to their characters I couldn't wait to see these actors go at it. I especially enjoyed the beautiful performance of a song entitled "Galveston" sung by Booth.

There is tremendous talent across the board in Hurricane and I feel that the show as a whole will only get better if they keep evolving it after this run. Word on the street is that this show is sold out for the entire New York Musical Theater Festival run, and they have even added a couple of extra performances. If you're lucky enough to have a ticket, by all means go.

(Hurricane plays as a part of NYMF - The New York Musical Theatre Festival. NYMF showcases new musicals and gives them an opportunity to mount a full production in NYC. Hurricane's remaining performances are Friday, October 9th at 5pm, Saturday, October 10th at 9pm and Tuesday, October 13th at 5pm. Tickets are $20 and are available at ovationtix.com. For more show info visit nymf.org.)