The New Yorker on Darling Grenadine
NOW PLAYING
Darling Grenadine
Staged in the round in the Roundabout’s smallest space, Daniel Zaitchik’s gorgeous new musical, directed and choreographed by Michael Berresse, begins in the guise of a sweet, charming rom-com before shifting, painfully and irrevocably, into a darker show about alcoholism. The cast is superb: Adam Kantor as Harry, a composer of jingles; Jay Armstrong Johnson as his barkeep brother, Paul; Emily Walton as Louise, a Broadway understudy (a situation that occasions several clever show-within-a-show songs); and Aury Krebs and Matt Dallal, excellent as everyone else—plus the trumpet player Mike Nappi, who conjures Harry’s dog (also named Paul) with his horn’s squeaks and whimpers. Edward T. Morris’s mostly hand-drawn animated backdrops are a perfect complement to Zaitchik’s fresh and soulful tunes. It’s a rare treat to catch a play like this in such an intimate room before it moves to bigger stages.