Angela Polk (front) channels a Minaj-Gaga hybrid in the doomed “Venice.” (
)
The most popular young-adult novels these days — “The Hunger Games,” “The 5th Wave” — feature hotties entangled in love triangles while trying to survive in a dystopian, dangerous world.
Now comes “Venice” — same idea, only it’s an off-Broadway musical. The disaster may be in the past for the characters, but the audience is living it, having to endure a poorly written, limply staged and feebly acted show. And that’s before the pandering number featuring a Nicki Minaj wannabe and Skrillex-like dance-music breaks.
What this has to do with the distressed “not-distant future” of the action — or with “Othello,” the vague inspiration for the plot — is anyone’s guess.
What we do know is that there’s a rivalry between a rebel named Venice Monroe (Haaz Sleiman) and Theodore Westbrook (Jonathan-David), the hunky CEO of the corporation that’s taken over Venice. Not the guy, the city — and based on the names, it seems to be the one in California.
The two men vie for the affection of Willow (Jennifer Damiano, late of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark”), though it’s hard to figure out why. She has no discernible personality, but then, neither do they.
Manipulating everybody is Gen. Markos Monroe, Venice’s resentful half-brother and, as played by Leslie Odom Jr. (TV’s “Smash”), one of the blandest military men ever. We’re not sure what drives him because Eric Rosen’s story is incoherent.
In addition to writing the book and directing, Rosen penned the lyrics with composer Matt Sax — another multitasker who gave himself a juicy role billed as “Clown MC.” Translation: a rapping narrator who comes across as a pale, irksome copy of “In the Heights” star and creator Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Amazingly, it took two people to come up with lines like Markos’ “I am hardly in step/With your emotional dance/From the moment I walk in/I don’t stand a chance.”
Or Venice’s emoting, “My blood trembles with desire/To set the world on fire.”
This banality is reflected in Beowulf Boritt’s scaffold set and Clint Ramos’ costumes — skinny suits for the lead men, vague camouflage for the ensemble, and a black leotard and black pumps combo for Hailey Daisy (Angela Polk), the Minaj-Gaga hybrid whose big number looks like a bad ’80s segment on TV’s “Video Music Box.”
Terrible musicals are a dime a dozen, but what makes “Venice” galling is its humorless grandstanding. Bad is bad, but self-important bad is worse.