DANIEL RADER
Liam Pearce and Lorna Courtney co-star in “Empire Records: The Musical” at The McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton.
In the store that gives the exhilarating “Empire Records: The Musical” — now premiering at The McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton — its name, Joe, its owner and manager, presides over a staff full of misfits. One is Lucas, who is such an oddball you can’t imagine him fitting in anywhere else.
“When I was 14,” says Lucas at one point, “I spent so much time in this store, I started pretending I worked here: organizing shelves and helping people find stuff. Joe actually started to pay me. He saved me.”
The musical is full of affection for old-fashioned (meaning, pre-Napster) record stores, and ’90s music. It’s got a sweet love story, a hissable villain, and real tension in its plot. But perhaps most of all, it has loads of youthful energy and an uplifting, feel-good vibe, as the store’s co-workers, who have become something like a family, come together for a common cause.
In more ways than one, it is about salvation.
DANIEL RADER
Lorna Courtney and Damon Daunno in “Empire Records: The Musical.”
It is based on the 1995 film “Empire Records” (co-starring Liv Tyler, Renée Zellweger, Anthony LaPaglia and others), which did not have much of an impact at the time, but has developed something of a cult following since then. The movie was a not a musical, just a comedy with a soundtrack of hip ’90s rock. “Empire Records: The Musical” has a book by Carol Heikkinen (who wrote the movie’s screenplay) as well as original songs by Zoe Sarnak that evoke ’90s rock artists such as Green Day, Alanis Morissette and Third Eye Blind, as well as “Rent” (but not the mainstream-pop and hip-hop that was also popular during that era).
The musical, which is directed by Trip Cullman, takes place over the course of one long day at the record store — except for the epilogue, which cleverly brings us up to the present.
So for most of the evening, we are back in the ancient past that is 1995. A spoken message heard before the start of the action reminds us that there is no social media yet. Phone calls are made on landlines. There are references to mixtapes, and posters of Radiohead, Hole and Stone Temple Pilots on the walls. Kenny G is the subject of a joke (well, some things were destined never to change, I guess).
Among the store’s employees are best friends Corey (played by Lorna Courtney, Tony-nominated last year for “& Juliet”), who is planning to attend NYU and so nerdy she brings homework to work, and Gina (Samantha Williams), who comes from a broken family, sometimes seethes with anger, and is not sure she will be able to afford college. Nice-guy AJ (Liam Pearce) pines to be in a relationship with Corey, but can’t muster up the courage to make his feelings known. Debra (Analise Scarpaci) is sullen and sarcastic. Mark (Eric Wiegand) announces that he is going to form a band so frequently that people just roll their eyes at him. Lucas (Tyler McCall) lives by a warped logic that he keeps calmly explaining to others, as if he were the most normal person in the world.
DANIEL RADER
“Empire Records: The Musical” cast members.
Head honcho Joe (Michael Luwoye) is a former local musician and something of a rock purist, and rules his little, uh, empire, with kindness, usually staying calm but sometimes getting so exasperated that he boils over. “Are you all like this because you work here, or do you work here because you’re all like this?” he asks, at one point, fed up with everyone’s eccentricities.
Other characters include a shoplifter (Sam Poon) who gets drawn into the staff’s orbit; and Max (Taylor Iman Jones), a former musician and old friend of Joe’s who has taken a “straight job,” working for a record company.
Max has come to the store because somewhat goofy rock star Rex Manning (Damon Daunno), a conceited jerk whose popularity is waning, is there to sign autographs; some fans do show up, but the store does not exactly have to hire extra security. Joe, meanwhile, is way behind on paying the store’s bills, and may be forced to sell it to a despised chain, Music Town. Staff members find out about this and learn that, deep down, underneath their too-cool-for-school exteriors, they believe that some things are worth fighting for.
A bit corny and predictable? Maybe. This may not be the most original musical in the world. But thanks to the skill of everyone involved, it has a freshness to it that makes it hard to resist.
“Empire Records: The Musical” will be at The Berlind Theater at The McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton through Oct. 6. Visit mccarter.org.
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