Theatre Review: Emojiland Fills You Will Happy Faces
Synopsis: Emojiland is an electric ensemble piece about a diverse community of archetypes who take one another at face value: a smiling face dealing with depression; a princess who doesn’t want a prince; a skull dying for deletion; a nerd face too smart for his own good; a face with sunglasses who can’t see past his own reflection; and a police officer and construction worker who just want to work together. When a software update threatens to destroy life as they know it, Emojiland faces the most fundamental questions a society – and a heart – can face: Who are we? And who matters?
Highly Original! Purely Energetic! Ridiculous Funny! Those are three phrases I would attribute to Emojiland playing until March 8 at the Duke Theatre on 42. In a world where emojis can truly be considered a second language, this show adds nuance to these standardized, keyboard faces. Moreover, it embodies a danger we all commit in society: judging books by their covers.
Not every smiling face is happy or friendly person a friend. Yet, in Emojiland, that is exactly what you are supposed to be. From the beginning, Emojiland speaks to the confinement of labels: for better or worse. You have Jacob Dickey’s perfect smile as Sunny, which he uses to charmingly glaze his character’s clear bullying. The hilariously fierce Princess, played “show-stoppingly” by Lesli Margherita, and the biting snark of Prince, played wittily by Josh Lamon, are anything but royal. Then, you have Smize, played brightly by Lauren Shein, whose infectious smiles cover a growing dissatisfaction with her emoji-life. Shein, along with Keith Harrison, wrote Emojiland and brilliantly embraced how outlandish this phone world can be.
EMOJILAND at NYMF 2018 – Highlights Trailer
Directed by Thomas Caruso, this musical is 100% light-hearted and made for musical lovers that appreciate the genre’s inherent sweetness and classic penchant for happy endings. Most modern musicals approach real-world problems with grit and unabashed embracing of their sadness. Yet, Emojiland, like other classic musicals, wants you to be happy, hopeful, and faithful to the idea that everything could resolve for the better, even if you made the problem yourself: as seen with George Abud’s Nerdface and Lucas Steele’s Skull.
Steele and Abud really drive home a central theme of Emojiland: how the world labels you can affect you, but should it change you? Should it make you a darker version of yourself? Their dynamic, along with Natalie Weiss’ Construction Worker and Felicia Bosewell’s Police Officer, are just two prime pairs that you root for in this musical. In addition, Steele’s phenomenal voice will make you weep, while Weiss NEEDS an R&B album STAT with her riffing capacities. The music and lyrics of Emojiland, at first listen, feel like they were made in Dylan’s Candy Bar with how sweet and colorful they seem. Yet, they are subtly profound: approaching the difficulty it is to be clear about how you feel in a world where even a Kissy Face, played by the talented Heather Malakani, can betray you. To Buy Tickets For Emojiland Click Here.
