By Michael Buzzelli
“Girl, there’s going to be a reckoning…in the morning!”
The lyrics of the fictional 90s boy band go hard…for laughs in Kelly Trumbull’s comedy/drama about the break up of a boy band fan group in “Morning Reckoning.”
Eight-grader Kandace (Lola Hodgins) is head of the Morning Reckoning Fan Club, Wayne, New Jersey chapter. Meetings are held in her mom’s basement, a laundry room decked out to look like set of “Saved by the Bell.” The room is littered with Morning Reckoning tchotchkes, t-shirts, pillows and a full-sized cardboard cutout of lead singer, Brandon Brixton.
Kandace does not take her presidency of the fan club lightly. She scrawls an agenda on a blackboard and takes attendance in “The Binder” (a Trapper Keeper with pictures of the boys in it). Latecomers will suffer the consequences of Kandace’s passive-aggressive wrath.
Members of the fan club included Trisha (Spade You), April (Ava Hartman), Emily (Maddie Colucci), Sue (Advika Ravishankar).
Like almost all 90s boy bands, Morning Reckoning is more style than substance. They’re mostly blond highlights and Axe body spray, but that doesn’t stop Kandace from crushing hard on Brandon Brixton. Let’s call it human nature.
Kandace rules the roost with an iron fist. She’s all angst and hormones. Tensions erupt when Trisha invites a new kid on the block to join the original five. A vote passes and in support of Nadia (Emi Prudhoe), with Kandace holding out against the newcomer.
“Morning Reckoning” is about friendships, fandom and obsession. There are revelations and reunions in the second act when the girls meet up again twenty years after their fan group disbanded.
Note: This reviewer saw the first act as part of the Community Supported Art (CSA) 2022-2023 season at the New Hazlett. The second act takes the story in a thrilling new direction, and the girls reunite as adults to get back in synch.
Hodgins does a great job as Kandace. She makes the role her own (originally – and brilliantly – played by Alex Manalo).
The cast does a great job inhabiting the preteens, and, with the help of costume designer Claire Stemmer, pass as thirty-year-old women in the second act.
Hartman gives off a strong mom vibe in the second act, helping Kandace bring the girls back together.
Ravishankar is a standout as the buoyant, bubbly Sue. She gets the best lines, and makes a simple “What’s up?” into a mantra.
Prudhoe has a smaller role, but makes the most of it. She resonates kindness and graciousness, foils for the bad-tempered, hard Kandy.
The buzzy boy band songs come straight out of the boyzone, composed by Brad Stephenson and Addi Twigg. The duo are genius-level goofy with lyrics that are delightfully daft, especially when singing about Adderall, love and other drugs. It’s hard not too bop along to the music, while laughing at the lyrics.
The girls lip-synch to the lyrics and memorize the band’s dance routines, brilliantly choreographed by Alex Manalo (the aforementioned original Kandace in the CSA run).
Playwright Trumbull takes an event with low-key consequences such as the break up of a fan group and blows it up big, taking a moment in their young lives the characters adulthood. It is a brilliant work celebrating the complex intricacies of female friendships.
Ashley Martin does an excellent job directing the madness.
If you’ve ever nerded out over a boy band, or belonged to a fan club, it’s easy to get into the basement shenanigans of “Morning Reckoning.”
-MB
“Morning Reckoning” runs until February 23 at the Richard E. Rauh Studio Theatre, in the sub-basement of the Cathedral of Learning, 4200 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. For more information, click here.
