Theater review: 'Emily's Song' at the Hudson Backstage Theatre

The pop star heroine of the new musical “Emily’s Song” has a problem. It’s not the fact that her mother died in childbirth, her father disappeared and now has amnesia, or her lousy taste in guys. Her real challenge is being trapped in a soapy, 100-scene screenplay that writer-director Chet Holmes has shoehorned onto the stage at the Hudson Backstage Theatre. 

But here’s the catch: Emily’s songs have actual heart, delivered with conviction by “True Blood” regular and rocker Lindsey Haun. 

The pop ballads by Holmes, his daughter Amanda, and Tom Shepard, express the resilience of a girl who claws her way out of grief into fame with the power of music. A kind of “Hannah Montana” meets “Tommy,” “Emily’s Song” has shameless commercial potential, if Holmes could free up — and smarten up -- his material. The show’s unbreakable father-daughter bond somehow transcends its own cliches, and the low-key charm of Tom Schmid as an idealized dad works well with both Haun’s punky starlet and Darcy Rose Byrnes, who plays Emily as a 10-year-old.  (Other roles remain stolidly two-dimensional at best.)

Holmes, who writes business bestsellers and collaborates with Tony Robbins, knows a thing or two about marketing. At least he’s had the smarts to build the show around Haun, who looks great in Shon LeBlanc’s costumes. It’s probably only a matter of time before he builds a better mousetrap, one worthy of this paean to girl power.

--Charlotte Stoudt

“Emily’s Song” Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. Ends Feb. 27. $34. Contact: 323-960-7788 or www.plays411.com/EMILY or www.emilyssong.com Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes. 

Photo: Lindsey Haun as Emily in "Emily's Song." Credit: Ed Krieger. 

Comments

[Steven Vlasak]

I saw this show. It's frustrating, because it feels like it could really be great. Chet Holmes has a solid skeleton of a story here, but spends way too much time TELLING the audience information, rather than revealing it through dramatic conflict. There're some undeniably emotional moments here, and it's almost worth seeing for what it is, but with a better script to tie it all together, this thing could really rock. In its present form unfortunately, it's still mellow-drama.