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Burlington Free Press Review: '27 Heaven' feels more like trip to Hell

It's not really clear what the message of "27 Heaven" is supposed to be, but here's one point that came through on opening night Wednesday, intentional or not: Rock heroes are better off dying before they become pathetic caricatures.

Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison certainly come off as pathetic in the rock musical that creator Ian Halperin says will be playing off-Broadway in a few months. The only character that doesn't come off pathetic in "27 Heaven" is Kurt Cobain, the leader of grunge-rock mega-stars Nirvana who in the play joins the other three in the afterlife following his 1994 death.

He's merely as he was on Earth -- pained, confused and at odds with the establishment, which in this case is the other three legends trying to usher him through the gates of heaven and into their planned post-mortem rock super-group.

Cobain wonders, and rightly so, why he should join these three musicians who died a generation before he did. Joplin has become a goofy, heavenly administrative assistant who processes all the famous folks who try to enter the gates. Hendrix, for reasons that never quite make sense, has become a neo-Nazi. Morrison comes off less as the mysterious Lizard King and more like an annoying cross between Howard Stern and Groucho Marx who, again for reasons that never quite make sense, has apparently converted to Judaism.

Halperin took an interesting idea -- all four of these musical giants died in their primes, at age 27 -- and tried to make something big. Problem is, once you get past that intriguing conceit and four actors who bear more than a passing resemblance to the famous faces, there isn't much to explore. "27 Heaven" is just as freaky as the '60s that Joplin, Hendrix and Morrison helped define and just as self-absorbed as the grunge movement Cobain launched in the '90s, yet without the chronological context that gave all of them meaning. It's an idea that dies on arrival.

If it all sounds implausible, consider the source: Along with works including a straightforward biography of singer James Taylor and the controversial book "Love and Death" he co-authored about Cobain's was-it-or-wasn't-it suicide, Halperin has written two books about his "undercover" work -- one in which he pretended to be a male model and another due out next year for which he pretended to be a glory-seeking actor auditioning for roles in L.A. Both books were ostensibly meant to uncover how badly aspiring stars are treated. He also filmed a documentary based on his Hollywood hijinks; his hometown weekly newspaper, the Montreal Mirror, used the term "fame-seeking fraud" in describing his film. He has a videographer in tow in Burlington this weekend as well.

Maybe "27 Heaven" is a legitimate (albeit flawed) play. Maybe it's just Halperin pretending he's bound for Broadway.

Halperin told Wednesday's crowd at FlynnSpace that they were seeing the first public showing of "27 Heaven," which is due for performances in late December in Miami before settling into New York City. He called "27 Heaven" "a rock 'n' roll play mixed with spirituality," though both elements are constantly muddled.

The rock 'n' roll, in fact, is almost an afterthought. A guitarist, with Halperin on saxophone, provides the music as all four sing (and actor Corey Corey, who portrays Hendrix, accompanies himself on a double-necked toy guitar). Adam Shuty sang "Light My Fire" in that same deep-voiced manner Morrison employed, but considering the contempt Morrison had for The Doors' most popular tune, it seems unlikely he'd sing it in heaven. Amy Fulgham was not only too silly in her portrayal of the richly layered Joplin, her thin voice reminded the audience how much we could have used Joplin's throaty roar.

Corey was the best singer of the night, especially on Hendrix's "Fire," but in a good musical the songs help advance the story line, which none of these songs did. The only time any of the music seemed more than perfunctory was at the end of the first act, when a riff from Nirvana's "Come As You Are" sounded like the inner thoughts of Cobain (played with effective intensity by Scott Price) as he considered whether to join the rock 'n' roll party.

The only glimmer of a point in "27 Heaven" came when Hendrix addressed the audience, pleading with people to tear down their pictures of him -- and implicitly, tear down their obsessions with the past -- and find their own way out of the '60s and into the future. Cobain did that, of course, and look where it got him -- dead and in his own circle of hell, in rock 'n' roll heaven.

Halperin was evasive Thursday when asked whether "27 Heaven" is another of his "undercover" projects. "Broadway Undercover?" he asked rhetorically before launching into praise of his collaborators on "27 Heaven," who include co-writer Todd Shapiro and director Adam Roebuck.

So if you do go to see "27 Heaven" in one of its final two performances today, you might want to go with the thought that it's not a play but a ploy. That's probably the only way you can actually enjoy it.

Theater is a land of make-believe, right?
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at 660-1844 or bhallenb@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com