FROM THE AISLE: BLUE FLOWER

I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out how to start this review, to provide some subtle introduction to the A.R.T.’s musical The Blue Flower, but I can’t seem to find a way.

So,  fuck it. I’ll just say it. This is one of the best musicals I have ever seen.

Now, for those of you who cringed at the word musical, let me assure you, The Blue Flower is not a conventional one.

Creators Jim and Ruth Bauer are not really playwrights, and this fact, I think, is what makes The Blue Flower so special, so affecting. They’re musicians and performance artists, and their wonderful show reflects that. It’s a serious, philosophical, meditative work that incorporates a huge variety of art to further its impact.

The show opens with an old Max Baumann (Daniel Jenkins in an incredible performance), sitting in a park in New York City, working on a book of collages. He has a heart attack, and right before he dies, everything freezes and he looks back on his life.

The play, then, becomes a collage itself, a mix of theater, music, poetry, history lessons, performance art, visual art, and dance. The storytelling is organic, moving seamlessly from past to present, from song to scene. A kind of narrator, named in the playbill as Fairytale Man (a pitch-perfect Tom Nelis), takes us through the story of Max and fellow artists Hannah Höch and Franz Marc and scientist Marie Curie, as they discover their art and participate in World War I.

They believed, then, that only a force like a war could really change things, and embraced what they called “the Big Show,” a conflict they assumed would only last a few weeks. Franz, though, was the only one who actually joins the fighting, enlisting as a soldier. Max and Hannah were war correspondents and aids. But the war, as it continues well beyond a few weeks, takes its toll on these characters, as it did on the world.

I realize that I need to spend some time on the performances and not relegate all the lauds to parentheticals. Meghan McGeary as Hannah is fierce and fiery, but still able to register the subtler, more tender moments. Lucas Kavner and Teal Wicks as the war-torn lovers Franz and Maria make the tragic story palpable and supremely moving. And I want to reiterate how masterful was Daniel Jenkins’ portrayal of Max. One scene in particular––a tour de force history lesson spoken in Maxperanto, a made-up language of Max’s––blew me away.

Director Will Pomerantz and crew make The Blue Flower immersive and engaging, replete with ingenious videography (done by Jim and Ruth) assisting the story and even, at one point, raining blue flower petals down on the audience. There was a magic to it.

So don’t head to A.R.T reluctantly because The Blue Flower is a musical. Take the chance to see many mediums of art, and many artists, working on lovely concert with each other, like the collages Max cradles at the end of his life. See it for the beautiful and playful music (the musicians, sitting on stage right, also deserve commendatory mention). See it for the performances, for the history, for the art.

Just go see this goddamn show.

[The Blue Flower. Through 1.8.11. Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 617.495.2668. $25 and up. americanrepertorytheater.org]