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Source: Theatre Mania.com
Reference:
Joe Starts Again
 A
musical about throwing oneself into the dating market after a partner
has died can have universal appeal; witness the classic Hello, Dolly!,
in which Dolly Gallagher Levi asks late hubby Ephraim for permission to
move on. But
Joe Starts Again, in which the eponymous fellow asks his
deceased lover to wish him luck, covers the same territory in what could
be termed a niche-musical manner.
Joe Thompson (Martin Croft, who wrote the lyrics to Dean Lotherington's
melodies) is a 49-year-old gay man who's using a dating service to put
himself out there. The hour-long piece that he commands, which ends just
before his first date with an appropriate man, is so precise in its
concerns and so emotionally honest that its immediate connection will
surely be to one of musical theater's most supportive core audiences:
homosexual men of a certain age. This is not to say that anyone
uncertain about trying love the second time around won't respond, and --
man or woman -- get a kick out of the show's central comedy number, "I
Shave My Balls."
Undoubtedly, actor-lyricist Croft has weathered Joe's experiences. That
would explain the indisputably authentic feel to Joe's trying to get a
prospective video right, to his recovering from an inadvertent date with
a woman, to his stumbling through initial phone calls, and so on. The
tall, bald and attractive Croft is writing about what he knows -- to
some extent, at least. Composer Lotherington, while not supplying tunes
that stick to the memory for the nearly sung-through show, does keep
things melodic.
The dating service begins to seem a highly questionable enterprise when
Joe is told by the service's unseen Sebastian to gay-up his video
address. Do minions in this line of work truly suggest that clients
mention Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand? Maybe so, but such clichés
help to perpetuate harmful myths. It's commendable that Croft has Joe
recoil from the suggestion -- though, eventually, he gives in. His
affronted take is one of many epiphanies that Croft and Lotherington
have packed into their adaption of Dating Joe, a play that Croft
wrote with Mark Fletcher. Those worried about the future of the
blockbuster musical can be heartened that the chamber musical
alternative has candidates like Joe Starts Again.
[Australian Musicals.com NB] - "Dating Joe" - the play that "Joe
Starts Again" is based on was written by Mark Fletcher only, and not
co-written by Martin Croft as the reviewer suggests.
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