This sweet, lively and original musical deserves a wider audience, or maybe just a much longer run where it is, since the production works so wonderfully well in the intimate Off-Off Broadway Theater 154 that scenic designer Daniel Allen has transformed into a Nashville honky tonk. There, Matt Rodin and seven other versatile actor-musicians enact the coming-of-age story – and the coming out – of Ace Baker, who we witness, starting at the age of 12, learn to accept his sexuality, discover his passion, and develop his compassion.  In other words, he grows up — and does so with much help from his grandfather, whose name is, you guessed it, Beau.

“Beau the Musical” is framed as a concert of songs that the now-adult musician Ace has returned to his hometown with his band to perform from his soon-to-be-released second album. But in-between the dozen songs, Rodin as Ace relives the “fears, crushes, laughter and pain” that he wrote about in his middle school journal, scenes he narrates that alternate with the score.

There’s the bullying by his classmate Ferris (Cory Jeacoma, who doubles as the band’s guitarist) who roughs him up and demands that he supply him with a cigarette —  until one day Ferris corners him, and kisses him. “My bully was my first kiss.”

There is the testy relationship he has with his mother Raven (Amelia Cormack, who doubles as the band’s mandolin player), exacerbated by the existence of her new boyfriend named Larry (Matt Wolpe, bass player), who keeps on calling Ace “Fella” (and if that’s not cornball enough, costume designer Devario D. Simmons has fun mixing and mismatching his outfit to dweeb perfection.)  Ace becomes furious with her after he answers a telephone call from a nurse at a Memphis hospital who is calling a patient’s emergency number – and thus discovers that his grandfather Beau is alive. Raven always told him that her father was dead.

Beau recovers. Ace visits him for the summer, a bond develops, the relationship deepens. Beau, a former musician, gives a gift to Ace of Rosetta – his long-neglected guitar, named after Sister Rosetta Tharpe, “the gospel pioneer who taught little white boys like me how to rock and roll.”

Beau, portrayed by Chris Blisset, is shown in flashback leading his band in 1970 with Rosetta, in a musical number entitled  “Shut Up.” The music is funkadelic, the group he leads is called the Bell Bottoms –a sly way of summing up that now-distant era.  It is one of the several songs that make the score too eclectic to call simply country. There is a pop love song, “Crush,” and a bluesy breakup number, “Disappear” and a duet between Ace and Beau, “By Your Side” that has a vibe of a 60’s folk song. 

“Shut Up” is a catchy tune, which includes such lyrics as:

“Hell woman, I’m grown
I’ll get home, when I get home.”

It is performed right after a scene where we see the Beau in a fight with his then-wife Le-Ann (Andrea Goss, who also portrays the nurse and Ferris’ mean girlfriend Karina, and plays piano in the band.) Le-Ann is angry about Beau’s behavior that people in their church are whispering about. We don’t learn until later what it is, but it is the reason why Le-Ann leaves him, and takes Raven with her. 

One of the joys of “Beau the Musical” is the craft of the writing, the acting and the directing in so seamlessly integrating the songs and the scenes, the past and present. Rodin in particular switches from 12 to late twenties almost imperceptibly, but persuasively. But all of the performers have their moments.  At one point, Ace calls Raven on the phone to play a song that Beau has taught him,  and there is a quick flashback, without any of the performers changing their positions, that shows Raven recalling her own childhood interactions with her father’s (less successful but just as kindly) efforts to introduce her to music.

In a note in the program, Douglas Lyons, who conceived and co-wrote “Beau the Musical” – yes, the same actor-playwright whose “Chicken & Biscuits” made it to Broadway – tells us he’s been working on this show for seven years. Indeed, a recording was released Sony Masterworks Broadway in 2019 with a different cast. (see below)

Given the effort of late “to erase the legacy and existence of the LGBTQ+ community,” he writes in the note, “I often think of the young queer kids, alone in their midwestern towns, who are told on a daily basis that they don’t belong. This musical was written for them.” (So, yes, it deserves a wider audience.)

Perhaps his feeling for those kids comes through, helping even cynical New Yorkers readily accept the earnestness of “Beau the Musical,” and be touched by Beau’s words of wisdom when in “By Your Side,” he tries to comfort Ace:

“Don’t be scared, just be prepared there’s fun in falling on your face
And when you do, keep laughing too, just brush it off and call it
Grace.”

Beau the Musical
Out of the Box Theatrics’ Theater 154 through July 27
Running time: 100 minutes with no intermission
Tickets: $45 – $110. 
Concept, book and lyrics by Douglas Lyons 
Music by Ethan D. Pakchar and Douglas Lyons Music Supervisor – Chris Gurr 
Directed and choreographed by Josh Rhodes
Scenic design by Daniel Allen costume design by Devario D. Simmons, lighting design by Adam Honoré, sound design by Jordana Brenica, prop designer Sean Frank 
Cast: Matt Rodin as Ace Baker, Chris Blisset as Beau, Amelia Cormack as Raven, Seth Eliser as Standby, Andrea Goss as Nurse/Karina/Le-Ann, Cory Jeacoma as Ferris, Tyler Donovan McCall as Standby, Miyuki Miyagi  as Daphney, Pearl Rhein as Standby, Derek J. Stoltenberg as Dennis, Lauren Jeanne Thomas  as Standby, and Matt Wolpe as Larry.
Photographs by Valerie Terranova