On Monday night, while celebrities paraded through the rain uptown at the Met Gala, theater insiders and their admirers gathered at a private apartment near downtown’s Astor place to hear a young composer named Jake Landau.
The evening was directed with impressive flair by Osh Ashruf, a multi-faceted director with a keen eye. Ella Martin served as associate director. Together, they offered a tender and immersive industry presentation in an intimate private home.
Landau is only 29 years old, but he’s already managed to leave a mark across the worlds of musical theater, opera, and ballet. Landau took to the piano, accompanying Broadway’s finest talent.
Joel Perez (Fun Home) kicked off the evening with a solo song cycle entitled “The Coin Toss,” in which a tormented lover vacillates about sending a text to his ex-boyfriend. The piece opens with the start of the relationship and ends with its dissolution. Along the way, fond memories are made, heartache is felt, and humor is found.
Tony Award Winner Maleah Joi Moon opened the next portion with selections from Rosie, a new musical theater piece about the iconic 1940s riveter. Moon’s fellow cast member from her hit musical Hell’s Kitchen, Jakeim Hart, followed with a song called “Make News.” Adrian Enscoe, recently seen in Swept Away presented a tune of irony about men in the factory, “Great Gay World” and Moon closed the section with the heartbreaking, “When the Men Come Home.”
Psyche, a musical set in Ancient Greece was next. It casts Broadway singers as mortals and Opera singers as Gods. The first piece “O Hos Alomenos”, featured a duet between Enscoe and Sydney Shepherd (First Date), and a gorgeous solo from violinist Anna Nordmoe. “Wandering”, a solo from Enscoe was the next and final selection from Psyche.
“Call Me By Your Name”, an original song based on the novel of the same name (and one of Landau’s favorite books) closed the revue. The queer love duet was performed by Perez and Hart.
Landau is clearly well versed and educated on various genres of music and infuses much of it into his own work. He brings a high level of sophistication and intellect to it, but never to the point of pretension. Too many contemporary composers want to musically impress us with their knowledge of chord structure and other music theories. Landau avoids that and instead, invites accessibility and warmth without sounding like basic, uninspired bubblegum schlock.
Landau has already been compared to the great maestro, Stephen Sondheim, and no doubt, parallels to Jason Robert Brown will be made. We are long past due for a contemporary composer like them who can captivate our ears, hearts, and minds but currently, Landau is a strong contender. Insiders already know it. As his work and reputation continue flourish, the rest will too.
For more information on Jake Landau, visit his website.