[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of L & G Music Lab’s It’s Your Fault: A New Musical About Self Help with book, music and lyrics by Griffith Frank and Lindsay Gitter, and directed by Rodney Vaccaro at the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2023.
It’s Your Fault is a hilarious and insanely clever musical from the minds of L & G Music Lab. We are welcomed to the book launch event of a new self-help book, It’s Your Fault who’s premise is that rather to explore the trauma you may have experienced at the hands of others as a reason for your irrational behaviour, feelings of worthlessness and general failures in life, and what you should be doing is accepting responsibility for it yourself. Take blame, take responsibility and take action. Seems simple enough. But as we find out, the motivation for this extraordinary discovery is hardly pure….
As we progress through the two lead characters and co-authors, Pete and Robin’s ‘workshop’, we see the cracks beginning to form. Their relationship is at the core of their theory and so when put under the pressure of the launch and after the revelation of Pete’s betrayal of Robin, whose name has been removed as co-author at Pete’s own direction, the core naturally implodes.
The ‘audience’ members who have been ‘randomly’ plucked from the seats around us to bare ‘witness’ and take part in on-the-spot therapy for their myriad of personal problems seem comically oblivious to the chaos, only aware of their own weird issues. And almost the entire performance is set to song…brilliant, wonderful, funny and poignant song.
It’s Your Fault is absolute perfection. I was totally surprised by the phenomenal quality of every song and the truly fantastic performances of every single cast member. It really is an absolute joy. Nuanced, gorgeous performances, wonderful vocals, with irony and sarcasm a plenty. I absolutely loved it and can only hope that the intention is to expand it into a longer version. But for the Hollywood Fringe, this 45-minute version is absolutely ideal. Griffith Frank, Lindsay Gitter and Rodney Vaccaro’s impressive careers so far should give you some idea of the kind of sublimeness you will experience…suffice it to say, it has got to be one of the best of the Fringe.
It’s Your Fault has only a few more performances and I urge you to add it to your busy Fringe schedules….it really does live up to all the Fringe hype!!!
When:
Live and streamed, Friday, June 23 @ 7 PM
Tickets:
https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/9937?tab=tickets
Griffith Frank – Playwright (Pete)
Griffith Frank is an award-winning singer and RIAA-certified multi-platinum songwriter hailing from Topanga, California. He spent his formative years developing as a musician and songwriter under his father, starring in a multitude of musical productions, sharpening his vocal and piano abilities, and would graduate as a Vocal Performance Major from University of California, Los Angeles.
In 2010, Griffith was a featured soloist on the soundtrack of the Golden Globe nominated movie Nine (dir. Rob Marshall); in which his version of Unusual Way was notably praised by People Magazine. Griffith has since performed all over the world at legendary venues such as Disney Hall, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and the Jakarta Jazz Festival.
As a songwriter, Griffith’s works have garnered over a billion streams worldwide, with notable viral hits such as Boomerang by Jojo Siwa, Where Would I be Without You by Kendall K, Two Sides by Annie Leblanc, and Handstand by Rosie McClelland.
Lindsay Gitter – Playwright (Robin)
Robin was born and raised in Los Angeles to a family of talented singers and artists. A graduate of NYU Tisch School for the Arts, she has starred in numerous musicals and plays, including an Off-Broadway musical at the historic Cherry Lane Theatre. She was a resident actor at the notable Flea Theater in Tribeca and is currently an artist in residence at White Horse Theater Company.
She began her journey as a songwriter after moving back to Los Angeles during the Covid 19 pandemic. She is the recipient of the 2021 ASCAP Foundation Jay Gorney Award for the original song, If I Don’t Try.
Lindsay and Griffith together form L&G Music Lab. It’s Your Fault is the third musical L&G have written together.
Rodney Vaccaro – Director
Emmy Award-winning Screenwriter/Producer Rodney Vaccaro has worked as a Screenwriter, Actor, Playwright and Stage Director throughout the United States, France and Monaco. He was trained in the Actors Studio and the Chekhov Studio in New York, and worked in the south of France under the tutelage of Michael Stewart (Hello Dolly, Bye Bye Birdie, Mack and Mabel, 42nd Street, Barnum).
Vaccaro has published five plays, American Still Life, Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One, Brown Red Yellow, Home of The Brave and Screenplay By, He has also published three novels.
As a screenwriter, Mr. Vaccaro’s produced screenplays include HBO’s Night Of The Running Man, Warner Brothers, Three To Tango, starring Matthew Perry, Dylan McDermott, Oliver Platt and Neve Campbell, Showtime’s Run The Wild Fields, starring Joanne Whalley, Sean Patrick Flanery, Alexa Vega and Cotter Smith, MGM’s Bigger Than The Sky, starring John Corbett, Sean Astin, Amy Smart and Marcus Thomas, for CBS, Snow Wonder, starring Mary Tyler Moore, Jennifer Esposito, Jason Priestly, Poppy Montgomery and Camryn Manheim and TNT’s The Engagement Ring, starring Patricia Heaton, Vincent Spano, Lainie Kazan, Tony LoBianco and Chuck Shumata. Run the Wild Fields was nominated for Emmys in three categories, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Picture, winning Best Director and Best Picture.