At A Night with Janis Joplin, written and directed by Randy Johnson, I sat down in the theater and was immediately repelled by a loud, noisy soundtrack that almost drove me out of the place. This was followed by lights flashing into our eyes, and then another sound assault from the musicians on the stage playing and singing at high decibels.
Janis enters, played by a powerful singer, Mary Bridget Davies, and her considerable talent is drowned out by the underscoring, which makes her words undecipherable. As my friend put it, “It’s too loud to hear.”
Davies has four dynamite co-stars: Taprene Michelle Augustine, De’Adre Aziza, Alison Blackwell and Nikki Kimbrough, each of whom portrays other singers of the time; they’re terrific. The set by Justin Townsend is peculiar: a bunch of lamps on the floor; his lighting design splashes around, and at other times under-illuminates.
Sound designer Carl Casella must have had damage to his eardrums from earlier listening to super-loud music, so that he couldn’t tell that this production of what seems to be a good show is defeated by electronic magnification of sound. If you feel you must see it, bring your earplugs.
