They were stereotyped, typecast and planted in hostile soil. But they pushed through like stubborn flowers, and now the world gets to see them in their ultimate bloom.
Review: ‘Blended Harmony’ at History Theatre shines light on Minnesota’s Kim Loo Sisters with style
With clever writing, catchy songs and strong performances, the ambitious Theater Mu co-production lives up to expectations.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
May 6, 2024 at 6:46PM
The Minneapolis-born Kim Loo Sisters are being celebrated in “Blended 和(Harmony),” an elegant new musical about the first Asian troupe to have a revue on Broadway, seven years in the making. The show, inspired by the writings of Leslie Li, a granddaughter, premiered Saturday at St. Paul’s History Theatre in a snazzy co-production with Theatre Mu.
Director Lily Tung Crystal teared up on opening night for good reason. Along with playwright Jessica Huang and composer Jacinth Greywoode, she has crafted a winning work that evokes Hollywood’s golden age with a neat twist.
Huang’s clever writing and Greywoode’s style-hopping songs center characters who in the past would have been lost in the background. But in “Harmony,” sisters Sophie (Suzie Juul), Maggie (Morgan Kempton), Jenée (Kelsey Angel Baehrens) and Bubbles (Audrey Mojica) magnetically hold the starlight.
The show sings because of performances and its design, including Mathew J. LeFebvre’s rich-toned mandarin-inspired costumes, which the cast changes quickly and smoothly, and Rush Benson’s dances that include a broad, funny bit with cloth mannequins.
Miko Simmons’ projections and Mags Scanlon’s lights help transform Mina Kinukawa’s proscenium stage set into historical locales as “Harmony” trips ever lightly over some heavy history.
In the musical, the sisters fulfill some of the dreams of their immigrant parents — Polish Mama Lena Louie (Ann Michels) and Chinese Papa Shear Gim Louie (Ariel Estrada) — by pursuing a career in showbiz.
But they sacrifice childhood play, teen infatuation and much more on their way to Broadway, including signing over rights to their show to impresario George White (J.C. Cutler), whose “George White’s Scandals” ran for 20 years, ending in 1939, the year the Kim Loos joined the act.
Even as the sisters deal with ugliness behind the scenes, Jenée finds love with Youlin (Ethan Yaheen-Moy Chan), the son of a Chinese general who hates music.
Greywoode nods to Sondheim, Gilbert & Sullivan and swinging jazz. But Greywoode’s compositions are not a dissipated pastiche of musical styles. As arranged by Robert Elhai under the baton of music director Elise Santa, the songs create an aural journey that matches the sisters’ evolution but also makes them resonant today.
Greywoode and Huang have a strong song partnership, and Huang’s libretto is by turns sweet, inspiring and occasionally edgy. Bubbles, for example, has a risqué number, “Worship Me,” in which she sets up a rhyme before whiffing. “Did you know I’ve got perfect pitch?” she sings as lecherous men wait at the stage door. “Now kneel down and be my … boyfriend.”
The coming-of-age number does double duty for the show’s most exuberant starlet and for Mojica, a formidable singer, dancer and actor who has grown up onstage in the Twin Cities and has now stepped confidently into young adulthood.
The show’s other Audrey, Parker, brings topnotch song-and-dance skill plus knockout glamour to the role of tap-dancing Broadway diva Ann Miller. She slays on “Ann Miller Fondles the World” with her tap steps.
Chan, whose reserve only adds to his projected strength and aura, proves a compelling romantic lead on “Gold,” a number about finding love.
The acting company is anchored by Michels and Cutler, two veterans who are excellent as can be expected. Michels invests Mama with spice — mostly pepper leavened with a little sugar. Cutler blunts White’s atavistic traits with well-executed humor. And they’re almost a couple in their sarcastic-to-sincere “Grateful” duet.
History Theatre regularly premieres plays and musicals while making such arduous work look easy. Shows such as “Glensheen” and “I Am Betty” — both of which will be coming back this year — are certified winners. With its revelatory history and stylish telling, “Harmony” deserves to be seen again and again.
‘Blended 和 (Harmony)’
Who: Story by Jessica Huang. Composed by Jacinth Greywoode. Directed by Lily Tung Crystal.
Where: History Theatre, 30 E. 10th St., St. Paul.
When: 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends May 26.
Tickets: $15-$74. 651-292-4323, historytheatre.com.
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