San Diego Theare Scene Review by Paola Hornbuckle
The Magical Forest a floral feast.
Like the unraveling of a rare and exotic flower, Eric Scot Frydler’s The Magical Forest slowly blossoms. Coronado Playhouse’s world premiere is enchanting, thrilling, and at times, mysterious. An ill teenage girl ventures into a botanical wonderland of talking plants. Escorted by a garden gnome called Nomie, Chloe Flower goes on a search for her flowery friend, Forget Me Nora, who is kidnapped by weeds. She meets many magical creatures and makes several friends along the way. The musical’s light and frothy “Alice in Wonderland” qualities are quickly offset by its serious undertones. The Magical Forest delivers a deeply relevant message about the harm that humans cause to the earth and to each other.
The biggest star of the show is without a doubt, the music. Eric Scott Frydler’s hauntingly beautiful musical score will linger in your mind for days. To say it is Broadway caliber is not far-fetched. The costumes are a close second. Each character is perfectly outfitted in an extravaganza of headdresses, vines, leaves, flowers, and other natural artifacts created by Stephanie Daniels Frydler. There are moments when the combination of costumes, music, singing and visuals leaves the audience astounded.
Perfectly cast as Chloe Flower, Alene Lynch (left) gracefully dances and sings her way from hospital bed to dark lagoon with a winning innocence and happy smile. Her energetic cheerfulness guides one through the musical’s darker moments. Exuding a stage presence that belies her age, Judy Mora is lovely as Mother Nature, but even more effective and powerful as Queen Marsha. Simon Barret is a dynamic King Ragwort, delivering one of the show’s most accusatory songs “Who Are These Men?,” as he contemplates those who pollute the earth with toxic waste. Along with Nomie, gently portrayed by Dan Valko, Chloe meets graceful De Vine (Diane Valero-Olivier, who also choreographed the show). Friendly Bugball (James Steinberg) and quirky Lizard (Nicholas Anderson) also help her on her quest.
The little Lookie Loos portrayed by child actors (Micaela Applebaum, Lexia Champagne, Danielle Edmonds, and Madeline Hornbuckle) brighten up the atmosphere with their coordinated antics and alternating voices. Particularly humorous are the Termite Rappers (Jenell Billingslea, Amanda Everett and Rosalie Celestial) and the energetic and charismatic Dumpster McDumpski (Skyler Dannon). Also seen are Crabgrass (Verell Abella) and Scrapper (Michael Anderson).
On the other hand, some of the show’s weaknesses come from its richness. There are so many scenes and so many characters that transitions can be a little abrupt. Although the lighting is daring and innovative, it can seem a bit dark at times. The characters can be so quirky and exotic, that one is left longing for a little more exposition, simple dialogue, and to the point explanations. The danger with some musicals is that the music is so front and center that the plot line can be left behind, and at times, the audience members.
Even so, one wonders if these “thorns” really take away from the show or just add to its magic. A predictable musical it’s not and ambiguity can be interesting. The Magical Forest is a rare gem, the musical score and costumes out of this world, with solid performances from its cast, not to mention the very firm hand of director Jessica Seaman. This diamond in the rough will surely enchant you, and you will be humming its tunes for weeks to come.
San Diego Union-Tribune Review
Unique perspective, by James Hebert
Through isolation comes creation for playwright whose condition has always given him a different take
On the days and nights when he was writing “The Magical Forest,” an original musical about the wonders and fragility of nature, Eric Scot Frydler only had to look out his back door for inspiration.
Frydler and his wife, Stephanie, live on Box Canyon, a natural preserve in the La Costa section of Carlsbad. For Frydler, the place's appeal lies not just in its scenery, but its solitude.
“I'll share a secret with you,” he says. “I don't really like to be around people a lot, because it takes my energy away. To do what I'm doing, I need to get inside my own world in a sanctuary kind of setting. And that's not always easy to do. But I really treasure that part of it, because it allows me to create.”
It's not that Frydler, who describes himself as “50-ish,” doesn't like people. It's just that for much of his life, figuring out the complexities and nuances of social relationships has been a struggle, a grappling with mysteries maybe as deep as any in the fantasy world of “The Magical Forest.”
For a long time, Frydler didn't know why human relationships were such a struggle. Then, through extensive counseling, it became apparent what was affecting him was an undiagnosed case of autism.
Though it typically presents challenges in three areas – social skills, language and stereotyped or repetitive behavior – autism encompasses a broad spectrum of disability and occurs in endless combinations of symptoms.
Frydler might be more mildly affected than many autistic people, but his accomplishments as a musician and writer – not to mention toy designer – speak to how little a label sometimes serves to define human potential. In Frydler's case, ironically, the label of autism helped free him from years of frustration and confusion.
“The hard part is when you're not completely clear what it is that you have,” he says. “It was hard to pin it down to one thing, because I was just normal enough to pass by.
“It came later, where it became clear looking backward. Like, 'Oh my god, this is really what you've been coping with your whole life.' ”
As a boy growing up in Manhattan, Frydler admits, “I never conformed very well to any school environment. Which is a polite way of saying I had a lot of trouble in school.”
But he did have parents who took him to theater and musical performances and encouraged his interest in music, as well as myriad other pursuits. As Frydler puts it: “I spent as much time at the planetarium as at theaters.”
Starting in his late teens, Frydler worked with an off-off-Broadway theater called the Performing Gallery, becoming immersed in the world of writing, composing and performing.
He also says he learned much from Laszlo Halasz, the first director of the New York City Opera, who took an interest in the young composer (according to Frydler) and allowed him to audit graduate classes at the Juilliard School and Stony Brook University.
Eventually, Frydler moved to Los Angeles, where he “learned about the wonderful world of rejection” while trying to break into entertainment there. But he also made a name for himself in the toy field, developing hundreds of product concepts and creating comic books distributed with Mattel action figures.
After moving to Carlsbad 12 years ago and meeting his wife-to-be (who did the costumes for “The Magical Forest”), he continued composing and writing. “Dracula,” staged early last year, was his first show at Coronado Playhouse, paving the way for “The Magical Forest,” which has its final performance today.
The play is “not just a fairy tale,” he notes. “It's a more involved story about environmental pollution, and saving animals and saving ourselves.”
Frydler is already deep into his next two projects: “Sumatra,” which he calls a “darker, deeper tableau” than “Forest”; and “Wingkind,” an opera based on genetic engineering.
“I seem to be flowing with the music,” he says of the work now. “I'm not even sure where that's all coming from. It doesn't flow all the time. So when it does, when the spigot is turned open, it's not something you want to tamper with.”
In work, and maybe now in life, he can go with the flow.