‘Fly by Night’ not your usual romantic comedy

Love and life choices during the time of New York City’s notorious 1965 blackout are the subject matter of “Fly by Night,” a quirky new Off-Broadway musical that’s being given its regional premiere at Roxy’s Downtown.

But co-directors Kyle Vespestad and Damian Padilla want to make sure you know it’s more than just your usual romantic comedy about boy meets girl. Instead, they say, it’s a bit of “poignant metaphysical whimsy” that makes you appreciate how everything and everyone is connected in the universal scheme of things. There is a surprising depth.

“I generally don’t like musicals, because too many times, the story gets lost behind the music,” said Padilla, a 2014 Wichita State graduate in theater performance. “But here, there is such a beautiful pairing of the music and story. It’s very quirky and offbeat with nonlinear storytelling, something not often done around Wichita. But it’s some of the most impressive writing I’ve seen.”

Added longtime local performer/director Vespestad: “I love how different it is. There are some funny, funny moments. But is it a dark comedy about how all the people’s lives connect? The audience will be surprised.”

“Fly by Night,” which was nominated for four 2015 Drama Desk Awards, including best musical, is the brainchild of Kim Rosenstock, who joined with Will Connolly and Michael Mitnick to compose music and lyrics that merge rock with show tunes. An earlier version won the 2011 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award.

Set against the backdrop of the 1965 northeast blackout, “Fly by Night” is the story of a wannabe songwriter named Harold (played by co-director Padilla), who works in a deli while working up the courage to believe in his own creativity. He becomes taken with two perky sisters recently transplanted to Manhattan from South Dakota: Daphne (Maddie Razook), who dreams of being a glamorous actress, and Miriam (Jessica Curtiss), who comes along to support her sister but is content just to be a waitress.

Complicating this triangle arrangement is an eccentric young playwright named Joey (Nicholas Reese), who spots Daphne and tries to fashion her into his muse. Filling out the cast are Rob Summers as the songwriter/sandwich maker’s newly widowed father, co-director Vespestad as the curmudgeonly deli owner and Max Wilson as the narrator, who keeps the audience up on details and occasionally steps in for a minor walk-on role a la “Our Town.”

Music director Rich Bruhn on keyboards heads a combo that includes Dave Consiglio on drums, Andy Bowers on bass and Dave Sewell on guitar. Set design is by Padilla, costumes by Christine Tasheff, lights by Arthur Reese and props by Brandi Bailey and Jennie Hughes, who is also choreographer.

“Harold is a pretty complex guy who just doesn’t put himself out there. He’s in a state of pervasive sadness because of the death of his mother. He picks up her guitar and discovers his ambition to write music, but he has no clue what it means to be happy. He’s living his life in ‘idle,’ ” Padilla said about the character he plays.

“His life is pretty disconnected. He wonders if he has something to say. Cosmic happenings are taking place around him. When the sisters come into his life, the love triangle provides a catalyst for both good and bad,” Padilla said.

Razook described her character of actress-sister Daphne as a “dreamer” who was a “big fish in a little pond” in her South Dakota hometown and was “used to getting everything she wanted.” Now that she’s in New York, she discovers a whole new world.

“I love that she’s a go-getter. I like her optimism and tenacity,” said Razook, familiar from last summer’s “Heathers: The Musical,” who will be a senior in music theater at Oklahoma City University. “She’s sometimes guilty of using puppy dog eyes to get what she wants, but she believes in herself. If she has a flaw, it’s that she has a one-track mind on her career and disregards others. She doesn’t realize that she needs more than that to be fulfilled.”

For the other sister, the waitress Miriam, Curtiss sees a woman who isn’t a bit jealous of her sister’s ambitions. Indeed, she is more than eager to help her while being content with her own lot in life.

“She’s been a server for 10 years. She’s complacent about it because she likes to help people. I’ve been a server myself, so I can relate to that feeling of being busy all the time and being useful,” said Curtiss, a junior in theater performance at Wichita State.

“Her biggest obstacle is her fear of change. She’s been told that her destiny involves finding great happiness but that it comes right before a great fall. She has to decide whether to grow out of her complacency and find herself,” Curtiss said.

As the aspiring playwright Joey who muscles in on the romantic triangle, Nicholas Reese described his character as “a regular guy” who is “thrust into his family business.”

“Joey comes from a family of playwrights, but he feels insecure about his own work. He’s not very ‘arty.’ He’s surrounded by yes-men, so he’s not sure about his own worth,” said Reese, a junior acting major at Oklahoma City University who performed in Music Theater Wichita’s 2012 “Singin’ in the Rain.”

“When he meets Daphne, she becomes his muse,” Reese said. “What I like about him is that when he discovers his passion, his reason for writing, he gets rid of the yes-men – something a lot of people are unable to do – so he can work on something he’s proud of on his own.”

This story was originally published June 17, 2016 at 9:10 AM with the headline "‘Fly by Night’ not your usual romantic comedy."