Happyland at The Magnetic Theatre

There are parts of Happyland, playing at The Magnetic Theater through Feb. 25, that feel like being in a strange, fitful dream. The rock opera — written by Brayden Dickerson and Zach Knox, who also provide the live musical accompaniment alongside Tyler Mack and Will Miller as the neo-soul band Smooth Goose — wanders from scene to scene in a somewhat disoriented way with the occasional startling and sudden change of direction.

From its opening ensemble number, the show gives its audience a sweet but slightly sinister introduction to the fantasy worlds they will spend the next 90 minutes exploring. And all is good in Happyland, or so say the residents there. Only the lonely, melancholy protagonist — named simply Protagonist (Dwight Chiles) — isn’t swayed by the sugary, empty calories of that place, and in his first solo song, he wonders, “Am I the only one who feels like it is all a lie? Am I the only one?” The surrounding Happylanders, with eerily wide grins, confirm that he is.

Protagonist is discontented, but he’s soon to be sent on an errand that will take him to undiscovered places. See, despite its name, Happylanders still have to work, and Protagonist’s particular occupation is package delivery. His next route? Sadland, and the journey there is what sets the plot into motion. Wheeling through the badlands of a place called The Neither, he has altercations with angry hipsters and a complicated fellow named Knifeguy (Evan Eckstrom) before rolling into Sadland, complete with its line for the DMV and Sadlanders’ wailing, repeated cadences of “Wah, Wah, Wah.”

It is there he first spots Rhonda (Elise Harvey) and is immediately smitten. Rhonda, though, is nonplussed, so there’s not much place for the story to go — except maybe into an epic space battle with aliens that blasts and flashes its way through a wormhole of fluorescent lights and galaxy dancers.

If that last bit seems like a random twist and turn of events — well, it felt like it in the theater, too. But the clash of spaceships is also one of the most exciting moments in the production. Dickerson’s and Knox’s musical project is a neat collection of soul and R&B tunes, but it plays like an almost stream-of-consciousness experiment. 

Chiles and Harvey both have very good stage voices, as do many in the ensemble, and the song delivery is sound. The cast’s teasing nods to the band broadcast self-aware silliness, and the whole thing is wrapped in good-natured humor, particularly the hamming and mugging during some of the solo numbers that lend nice acknowledgments to the audience.

But even during the bigger numbers, there doesn’t seem much for the performers to do except stand and wait for their next lines. At times, backup dancers enter to break up the instrumental sections, but it doesn’t quite fill the awkward physical pauses where, like the barren lands of The Neither, there’s a lot of empty space. As such, Happyland could be billed as a musical revue rather than a rock opera, with a lineup of songs that feel somewhat retconned to fit together. That difference may be pedantic, though, since the same could be said for no less than The Who’s Tommy.

All that should not take away from the musical numbers, however, even if the through-line connecting them is stretched pretty thin. As Boss, Paula O’Brien delivers on the vocals in her Motown-styled moment in the spotlight, and Eckstrom’s turn as Knifeguy is bizarre and out of left-field, but nonetheless a great bit. The song “Rhonda,” with the wonderful line “Rhonda, get into my Honda,” has a solid Hall and Oates groove. 

Despite the whiplash turn into space opera, the spaceship fight is a wonderful WTF moment, with set design (Evan Eckstrom and Tippin), costumes (Ashleigh Goff), and light design (Abby Auman) all coming together in a colorful and frenetic cacophony. Chiles’ solo at the end of the battle as he drifts in space is a winsome and retrospective denouement reminiscent of Hedwig and the Angry Inch’s “Midnight Radio” or Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s “I’m Going Home” at the end of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (a production that, come to think about it, has its own out-of-nowhere spaceship).

All told, Happyland is a childlike and joyfully intended production. In his playlist notes, director Jason Phillips calls it “…sweet, silly, whimsical and a little heartbreaking.” He’s not wrong there, and it won the accolades of the audience, some of whom were children themselves, at the Sunday matinee I attended. Go in ready to follow Protagonist through come-what-may and be distracted by whatever twists and turns await, and your sweet tooth will thank you. 

Happyland runs through Feb. 25 at The Magnetic Theatre. For details and tickets, visit themagnetictheare.org.

NOTE: Happyland features two rotating casts. See the theater’s website for playbill. 

(Photo by Jennifer Bennett)