While it is no easy task to direct or to write a show, Francie Jones ’08 managed to pull off both at the same time. Her original musical, “Being Ordinary,” went up last weekend in the ’92 theater and featured twelve songs written and composed by Jones.
“The show’s been in the works technically since I was about 15, since the songs were written over the course of five years, with only about half of them written more specifically for this show,” Jones said. “I wrote the bulk of the actual script over this 2005-2006 winter break, and continued to finish up the songs during the rehearsal process.”
“Being Ordinary” tells the story of average Ella, played by Ruby Ross ’08, and her quest to produce a classy dinner theater show. She teams up with the esoteric intellectual Jamie, played by Seth Cohen ’07, and the inevitable love story ensues.
“The hardest part for me was deciding what kind of ‘weird’ Jamie was,” Cohen said. “I knew he was avant-garde, but I wanted to make his mannerisms and expressions a little off as well.”
The show’s dialogue felt so natural that the audience could have been eavesdropping on two friends having a conversation. Yet sometimes the dialogue, because of its realism, slowed the pace of the show and detracted from the energy of the music.
Most of the story line took place within Jones’ songs. The title song, with its fun lyrics, was the most enjoyable; it was beautifully sung and harmonized by Cohen and Ross.
“I wrote most of the title song ‘Being Ordinary’ without having really formulated an idea for the show, so in a way the song itself dictated the rest,” Jones said.
Humorous and well-crafted, the audition scene halfway through the play was a definite highlight. Rebecca Littman ’08, Allison J. Dickinson ’08, Steve Sunu ’08, and Sarah Gillig ’09 played the actors trying out for Ella and Jamie’s production. Littman stole the scene as the funky actress Simone, whose avant-garde audition consisted of punching holes into tin foil before crumpling it into a ball at the end of her song.
The play-within-a-play is a common plot construction within musical theater. Jones used the device not only to highlight her characters’ dreams and desires, but also to explore the difficulties of collaborative work.
“I’ve collaborated musically before and found that that type of relationship can be the most emotional kind,” Jones said.
While the audience’s reaction to the show varied—some were confused, others entertained, and some even left humming the title song—there is no way not to admire Jones for completing such a difficult project.
“I can’t even imagine writing my own play, let alone composing an original score to go along with it,” said Alexa Jay ’08. “I was quite impressed that Francie managed to do both.”
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