“Fasten your seatbelts – it’s gonna to be a bumpy night!” Bette Davis’s character Margo Channing utters this now famous phrase in the 1950 film “All About Eve.” The quote has often been corrupted and misquoted as “Fasten your seatbelts; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.” In either incarnation, the quote is an apt metaphor for the difficult journey life presents as humankind attempts to make some meaningful sense of the self, the other, and the world.
The quote might also be an apt metaphor for describing “Spring Alive,” the self-described ecstatic journey home on stage now through March 25 at Dixon Place in Manhattan. Creator and performer of the journey Spring Groove constructs her performance will the good intentions of not only rehearsing her own successful navigation through the bumps in her journey to self discovery but also providing a template for the audience members to attempt their own liberation. But as Robert Burns aptly noted, “the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men, gang aft agley.”
The first indication full lap and shoulder restraints will be needed is the prolonged marketing assault launched by a member of Dixon Place’s staff. Such shameless pitches for monetary support prior to any performance are unfair to the performer and the audience and should be banned. Ms. Groove cannot be held responsible for this first bump.
However, the second bump comes from Ms. Groove’s own director who decides he needs to energize the audience with a second shameless pitch for audience and monetary support and issue a warning that the audience, throughout the next ninety-plus minutes, will be required to actively participate in the performance. Several seat belts, including my own, instinctively tighten. The bumpiness of the performance itself is indeed the result of several choices made by Spring Groove and her creative team.
Although Ms. Groove successfully chronicles her journey from spiritual torpor to spiritual renewal, she often appears self-serving in that attempt. The show’s twelve songs are connected by a book conceived by Spring Groove and Huck Hirsch. In these spoken interludes the audience learns that Ms. Groove’s spiritual journey from Broadway back home was peppered with busking gigs which gave her sufficient income to travel to and from Europe at least twice, study yoga in the Bahamas, attend an exclusive and costly ashram, entertain her Long Island parents in Italy, and celebrate Thanksgiving with her parents in Venice Beach where she is the only single person at the table. Why wouldn’t a busker on her spiritual journey invite her Venice Beach homeless friend (whose Thanksgiving dinner is a can of tuna opened with a bayonet) to be her guest?
Even the performer’s appeal to pathos is problematic. Ms. Groove repeatedly invites her audience to participate in antiphonal Sanskrit Mantras: first “Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya,” a Mukti, or liberation, Mantra; second “Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha,” a Mantra to Lord Ganesha which aids in spiritual progression (transcending into higher states of consciousness) and effects healing in the physical and energetic bodies; and, finally “Om Dum Durgayei Namaha,” an appeal to the Divine Protectress Durga whose sight can produce ecstacy and a variety of beautiful forms. All of these sacred Mantras can lead the seeker to profound spiritual awakening but only when the postulant volunteers to chant and humbly awaits transformation.
The Mantras in “Spring Alive” are highly rehearsed performances including dancers entering “on cue” with ecstasy-ridden faces and movements which belie any sincerity of divine revelation. At one point near the end of the performance, these same dancers enter with a large “mattress” upon which Ms. Groove sits swami-like and invites her audience and her dancer-devotees to “sing along” to the projected words of the Mantra.
Each person’s quest for spiritual awakening is authentic and sacred. There is no doubt that Spring Groove’s journey home is authentic and inspiring. It is not evident, however, that “Spring Alive” is the most effective medium for sharing that journey. It’s slickness deters from its persuasiveness and its rehearsed shine (band members with closed eyes and uplifted faces) leaves little room for the spontaneity of the elusive spirit of rebirth.
This said, some will find this performance a powerful vehicle for change. Spring Groove’s appeal for the audience to help one another and to allow the light within each person to shine and to become the light each person is made with a sincere hope for personal and corporate transformation. She sends her audience forth to seek authentic change. If only we were not cajoled into piling out onto the stage to dance bedecked with circular glow sticks and torn-paper remnants of our worldly stress.
Back to those bumps: ultimately, not all that is bumpy is bad. As Ms. Groove reminds us early on, some of those bumps are opportunities for growth. She is correct. Go ask Ganesha. _____
SPRING ALIVE ONE Healing Arts COMPANY and Demos Bizar Entertainment present SPRING ALIVE! a world premiere concert experience starring Broadway performer and recording artist Spring Groove (Broadway: Grease, Saturday Night Fever). Musical Director Alex Navarro leads a band, including musicians Greg Burrows, David Finch, Jordan Jancz, and Deepak Ramapriyan with singers Sherz Aletaha and Saum Eskandani. The dancers are Akil David, Jennifer Knox, Catherine Poppell and Richard Riaz Yoder. Performances for SPRING ALIVE! will be held from March 2-25, 2012 on Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 7pm at Dixon Place, 161 Chrystie Street (between Delancey and Rivington) in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Tickets for SPRING ALIVE! are $25 and can be purchased by visiting https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/903605 or by calling 212-352-3101. For more information on SPRING ALIVE!, visit www.onehealingartscompany.com. For more information on Spring Groove, visit www.springgroove.com.
Permalink | Posted by David Roberts on Saturday, March 17, 2012
CEOExpress
