Tampa Tribune - MAXWELL Review
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TAMPA - Unless you've been holed up in a cave and ranting against pernicious American
pop culture with Osama bin Laden, you're going to love Joe Popp's new rock musical, "MAXWELL."
The Jobsite Theater production is at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center through
Jan. 20. Then it heads to New York for a short gig at the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn.
Here is an outrageous sendup of pop culture, complete with a driving score that
covers the ground from hard rock to gospel to country punk.
This stuff is pernicious, all right. Deliciously so, although folks with no sense of
humor probably will detest it.
A former performer in Tampa punk bands, Popp, who lives in Brooklyn, penned 16 songs,
ranging from Mick Jagger's exuberant brand of hard rock to Bruce Springsteen's
blue-collar ballads, for the show. Popp's musical virtuosity is evident in the
prerecorded score.
Rock, of course, is a mature genre, making it ripe for sendups and historical perspectives.
Andrew Lloyd Webber started it years ago with "Jesus Christ Superstar." But the best,
most recent example is John Cameron Mitchell's "Hedwig and the Angry Inch."
"MAXWELL" is in the tradition of "Hedwig," a rollicking attack on popular music and
Jerry Springer-style culture.
In this sugary-sappy psychodrama, David Jenkins is Joseph Maxwell, a working-class
prodigy tutored by scientist Stephen Hawking (Chris Holcom). Maxwell ignores the
attentions of a lovely groupie, Rosa (Nevada Caldwell), to perfect a machine to
do mankind's work. The result is a disaster of Biblical proportions.
Under the astute direction of R.M. Lawrence, the Jobsite performers are more
disciplined and successful than they have ever been. They need more directors
like Lawrence, who is also an able choreographer.
Except for Jenkins, who has a strong enough voice to carry his character,
the singing is not up to the level of the book and score. But everything else is
wonderful, witty and, above all, intelligent.
We must not forget to mention, however, the high-minded aims of Maxwell's super
machine, whose "ultimate goal is to give rednecks perfect grammar ... and four-hour orgasms."
Reporter Joanne Milani can be reached at (813) 259-7569.
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Witty, Catchy 'MAXWELL' Takes Aim At Pop Culture
By JOANNE MILANI jmilani@tampatrib.com
published January 8, 2002