Rush to see 'The Boys Are Coming Home'

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Aug. 7--Nothing gets producers and directors more freaked out than a fragile new musical. So the Northwestern University premiere of Leslie Arden's "The Boys Are Coming Home," a loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing," was shrouded in nervous disclaimers and dampened expectations. Just a "workshop," they insisted. Mostly a student cast. Don't expect too much.

Balderdash. If those caveats stop you from seeing this remarkable show, that's balderdash dangerous to the future of American musical theater. "Boys" doesn't need much doctoring. It needs seeing.

This show is smarter and has a better score than at least 80 percent of the shows on Broadway in the last five years. The quality of Arden's lush, tuneful, varied and intensely moving music -- along with the conceptual and commercial soundness of setting a "Much Ado" musical as American troupes return home from World War II -- will be immediately clear to anyone who cares about this art form.

Sure, there are some stutters early in the first act. But Act 2 already is an eye-popper. And an eye-mister. This thing is that emotionally engaging. Why? It's simple. Arden writes gorgeous music and lyrics about the hopes, pain, love and aspirations of ordinary folks. And she does so with truth.

You'll be seeing students (who work under director Gary Griffin and alongside the professional likes of Harriet Nzinga Plumpp, Larry Adams, Jonathan Weir and James Rank), but that requires remarkably few compromises. In the case of Emily Thompson, a guileless young talent who plays the ("Hero") role of Helen with perfect pitch and utter honesty, you're seeing prefect casting.

It was clear from the Goodman Theatre's widely overlooked "Martin Guerre" years ago that Arden is a huge talent. So why don't Broadway producers wake up? As you'd expect from the concept, this piece is warm, light and kind. But what you don't expect is the sophistication of feeling and idea.

The next job with this show is to sharpen the comedy and unify book and lyric. Arden knows how to take a familiar situation and approach it from a weird angle. Now Stapleton has to hit "Much Ado" with the same glancing conceptual blow that can please New York sophisticates as well as the musical-comedy set. That's what's needed to make sure this show becomes not a fixture of the senior nostalgia circuit but a hit on Broadway. Where it belongs.

cjones5@tribune.com

"The Boys are Coming Home" runs through Aug. 13 at the Ethel M. Barber Theatre, 20 Arts Circle Drive., Evanston. $30; 847-491-7282.

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