Floyd Collins

[June 13th, 2007] [MANIC MUSICAL] This is a play about a man stuck in a hole. In 1925, Floyd Collins was trapped in Kentucky's Sand Cave while spelunking in pursuit of fame and fortune. The efforts to rescue him, and his eventual demise, drew national attention, giving birth to the country's first media circus and taking on epic significance for readers across America.

I came to Stumptown Stages' production of Floyd Collins—Adam Guettel and Tina Landau's musical rendition of the cave saga—with high hopes and low expectations. On the one hand, with Artist Repertory Theatre's John Kretzu directing and a cast including Isaac Lamb, Susannah Mars and Kirk Mouser, the show sounded promising; on the other, I had been too dissatisfied with the company's prior efforts to expect much from this one. Unfortunately, I wasn't disappointed on either count.

I do not much care for Floyd Collins. Although the story is fascinating, I find the music—an odd mix of bluegrass themes, pop melodies and atonal shouting—for the most part grating and dull. That said, there are some wonderful moments in the show: Tyler J. Caffal, last seen in ART's gut-busting Inspecting Carol, gives an engaging, well-considered performance as Skeets Miller, the rookie reporter who gets caught up in the rescue effort; Isaac Lamb's solo in "The Ballad of Floyd Collins" is chilling and beautiful; and the show is stolen by a trio of tap-dancing reporters (John Ellington, David Cole and Sean Ryan Lamb) parasitically chronicling the unfolding story—in rhyme.

Although this production is more levelheaded than Stumptown's previous shows, there are still some serious problems here. Some of the more strenuous roles—a few members of Collins' bizarre and possibly inbred family, in particular—are played by the production's least capable actors. More importantly, odd casting leaves Todd Tschida (Homer Collins) singing far below his range and sounding a little foolish.

Most troubling of all is Kirk Mouser's hyperactive portrayal of the titular character. Mouser is a big actor, who has toured with Le Mis and Phantom. He's well suited to epic roles, but he seems a bit lost in a role that is, for the most part, motionless. What makes Collins' story so interesting is that the epic tragedy that reporters and readers latched onto was a hollow one; when it comes down to it, Floyd Collins was a reckless adventure-seeker who died from his own folly. Mouser's manic energy and vocal acrobatics are fine for Floyd-the-wild-eyed-tragic-hero—but it would be nice to see a little of Floyd-the-fool-in-the-hole.