Bike Shop Gives Musical Bold, New Spin

Credit: Photos by Nancy Adler

"Bike Shop: The Musical,” with book by Elizabeth  Barken and Caroline Murphy, music by Younyoung Park and lyrics Caroline Murphy, is a little gem of a musical  that seems as tucked away from the world as the characters whose lives revolve around the family business; a bicycle repair shop in Brooklyn.

The audience is invited into this humble multi-generational sanctuary which serves to shelter as well as to  isolate the characters from the pain  and trauma that life has offered them.  Director Gretchen Cryer creates a world where the story unfolds. Set Designer Mark Marcante, has  created an abstract yet compelling bike  shop interior. Lighting Director/ Master Carpenter Alexander Bartenieff  brings the set to life. The stage managemer Leila Wright and assistant Michael Bell support a  one-setting production while maintaining visual interest.

Musical Director Michael O'Dell keeps the music engaging and emotional. And a talented cast get the wheels spinning and keep this show moving with strong story and music to hold our interest. The protagonist Bobby( Elizabeth Barkan) is a woman who had been a bike messenger who retreated to the family-owned bike shop after a harrowing accident leaves her traumatized.  Her father, Jack, (David Edwards) and  gay Uncle Bernie ( Joe Symon )  have spent their lives in the shop,  itself was the creation of a long deceased  Irish grandmother who came  to Brooklyn 100 years before with talent and a dream.

It is a perfect world devoted to  excellence and  hard work, a microcosm of what America can be and is at its best. And yet we become aware that indeed each of these  people are in fact stuck  at a time  in their lives when  their hopes have died.  Their wheels are spinning, but they aren’t going where they want in life.

The direction by Gretchen Cryer benefits from her experience doing  musical theater as writer and lyricist, showing a seamless understanding of the effective  integration of songs and script. With a cast whose talent fills the stage, the rhythm of the piece is effectively maintained.  

Musical director Michael O'Dell  puts his  professional polish on the  piece, so the music takes a meaningful role in the emotional exposition and experience of the  play.  The vocal arrangement  and music prep of  Jordon Wolfe can be noted in the pacing and integration of the technical support of Charles Battersby and drummer Michael Grayson. There is nothing superficial here. This is a well put together production of a well written musical.

Barkan's story plays with time, as the sorrows and compromises of the lives of the characters are unveiled  gently. More than the bikes’ wheels have been spinning in place, as lives become trapped in time. Barkan does a credible  job  convincing us that she is  an athletic girl of twenty, a top notch  mechanic and an emotionally resigned middle-aged shop-keeper. Her voice and  spirit shape the drama.

We learn that Jack is a Vietnam vet and  that his long lost sister Jane (Madeleine Doherty) tore the family apart with her substance abuse. The social crisis of  several decades are the frame upon which their lives are hung. Time passes quickly as life becomes a routine that remains punctuated by the joy of love and the pain of loss. It is those life -altering moments that define how we live, and the choices which seem  self-evident. And yet, when  Bobby's long lost friend and handsome heart-throb Frank (Jim Newman) turns up to have his shattered vintage Schwinn-racer repaired, more than bicycle parts begin to be restored. Just as bikes need to be repaired, so do bodies, souls and lives.

It would be unfair to call "Bike Shop - A Musical," a love story or an amusing family saga, without noting that  at its root it is an important and engaging commentary on the meaning of time, which stands still and yet races forward with or without us. Take a chance on the possibilities that life offers is the message, and fearlessly hold onto the things you love. The wheels of time will keep spinning, no matter how much we may try to keep them still. Keep riding, moving forward, even though you don’t know what your destination may be. Bike Shop keeps moving, and moving us, the way that a good musical can whether it's on Broadway or a smaller theater, giving us character, plot and songs where voices and souls both sing.