Sitting through the dull musical “The Landing,” you wish John Kander had quit while he was ahead. The composer and his longtime partner, lyricist Fred Ebb, are responsible for all-time great musicals like “Chicago” and “Cabaret.” The team’s 2010 effort, “The Scottsboro Boys,” was a provocative, bracing masterpiece.
But that show was Ebb’s last contribution — a posthumous one, since he died in 2004. Now Kander is back with a new book writer/lyricist, Greg Pierce.
But even with a cast that includes the new guy’s uncle, David Hyde Pierce, this collaborative debut is a big fat meh.
Kander and Ebb’s most effective mode was to combine dark subject matter with bright melodies, juxtaposing brash showbiz glitter and black humor. Here, the tone is beige, bland and witless, which gives Kander little to work with.
Directed by Walter Bobbie, the musical is made up of three shortish works. The appetizer, “Andra,” focuses on the friendship between a young mathlete (Frankie Seratch) and a carpenter (Paul Anthony Stewart) who teaches the boy about the poetry of stars rather than numbers. A tiny plot twist fails to lift the proceedings.
In the comic “The Brick,” Aunt Charl (Julia Murney) watches old noir movies with her kid nephew (Seratch). Hyde Pierce plays a stylish gangster in this would-be zany romp, which feels like a clumsy tribute to old Kander and Ebb.
In the final piece, which gives “The Landing” its title, Stewart and Hyde Pierce are a gay couple who adopt a 12-year-old (Seratch). Collin is almost too good to be true — unlike any tween boy, he makes his own bed. And indeed, there’s a catch. Not that we care all that much about anybody involved.
“The Landing” isn’t a terrible show — the people in charge are too experienced for that. Kander fans may see it out of curiosity, but everybody else will wonder why it exists at all.