The three of us had a fantastic time attending opening night on Friday at San Diego Rep. The show is in great shape, and the San Diego Union-Tribune agrees. We could not be more thrilled.
“Every time I look at you, I turn into me.” It’s the kind of clever, compact line that pops up again and again in the dialogue and lyrics of Brendan Milburn and Valerie Vigoda, the show’s married writer-composers (and co-founders of the band GrooveLily). Their music is equally distinctive. Vigoda is a top-notch violinist, and while neither she nor Milburn are part of the production’s five-piece ensemble, strings and piano (Milburn’s specialty) are a key to their score’s melodic pop-rock pleasures. The show’s sound turns out to be a blissful departure from the usual musical-theater tropes, with plenty of stylistic shifts but enough unity to hold together the unorthodox storytelling…This smart and surprising show — still in just its third production — is already more than a match for other small-scale musicals I can think of that managed good runs off-Broadway. Long question short: When does it go to New York? — James Hebert, San Diego Union-Tribune
Read the full review here, and then if you can, get thee to San Diego to see LONG STORY SHORT! The show runs through November 1.