George Abud (left) and Laura Schein find love as emojis Nerd Face and Smize in the musical Emojiland.
Is there any way to review a show called Emojiland besides 🆕🎶📢🎨⚡? That is to say, this new musical is loud and colorful and has lots of energy, but some parts work better than others. (Hmm, there doesn’t seem to be an emoji for that last thought.)
Set in the place where emojis live inside your cell phone, Emojiland features a cast of 14, who all portray emojis. It has a little of Pixar’s Inside Out (emotions as characters) and a little of Broadway’s Disaster! (musical-theater fan favorites doing campy material) plus the exuberantly performed up-tempo numbers of a theme-park revue and the over-the-top costumes of a drag ball. Political allegory is also in the equation: The fact-averse (“10 seconds equals 30 seconds”) leader of Emojiland insists on building a wall to protect against alleged “security threats” and blames problems on newcomers—the emojis installed in the latest software update.
“Among the star names, Ann Harada makes the most of her cameo as that famous emoji Pile of Poo, and Max Crumm as Man in Business Suit Levitating skillfully glides around the stage on a hoverboard but doesn’t get to sing solo.”
Husband-and-wife team Keith Harrison and Laura Schein wrote the book, music and lyrics of Emojiland. He’s worked extensively in TV as a musical director, arranger and composer; her credits are primarily as an actress, including Emojiland’s Smiling Face with Smiling Eyes, a.k.a. Smize. Their score’s highlights are the sweet duet “Work Together,” in which Police Officer (Felicia Boswell) and Construction Worker (Natalie Weiss) extol their relationship, and the bluesy power ballad “A Thousand More Words,” which Boswell delivers with soul-searing aplomb. These moving songs would fit in nicely in a love story with human characters.
The group numbers, meanwhile, end up somewhat indistinguishable from one another because they’re all performed so boisterously, and even a few of the character songs (like “Princess Is a Bitch”) are a bit shrill. Harrison and Schein do deploy tech language cleverly in both lyrics and dialogue: Sunny and Smize wonder how compatible they are, for example, and a depressed character contemplates deleting himself.
Emojiland originated at the 2018 New York Musical Festival, directed then and now by Thomas Caruso (Southern Comfort at the Public). Along with Schein, two members of its Best Ensemble-winning NYMF cast return for this production: Lesli Margherita as Emojiland’s Kardashian-esque Princess, and Josh Lamon—who also won an individual performance award at NYMF—as the fey Prince with whom she’s forced to share power after he is installed in the update. Lucas Steele synthesizes every British screen villain and an overcoating of morbidity into a scene-stealing performance as Skull, while George Abud is a polysyllabic delight as Nerd Face, who takes a liking to Smize but is naively manipulated into Skull’s deadly scheme. Other storylines involve infidelity and a same-sex romance. So there’s actually quite a bit of plot despite the silly tone set by the pitched-to-the-rafters opening.
Lesli Margherita reprises her role from the 2018 New York Musical Festival in Emojiland. Photographs by Jeremy Daniel.
You can’t fault the cast for enthusiasm, though. Or talent. Ensemble members Jordan Fife Hunt and Tanisha Moore do some terrific dancing (choreography is by Kenny Ingram). Heather Makalani and Dwelvan David go all-out comedically in their portrayals of Kissy Face and Guardsman, respectively, and play other roles too.
Among the star names, Ann Harada makes the most of her cameo as that famous emoji Pile of Poo, and Max Crumm as Man in Business Suit Levitating skillfully glides around the stage on a hoverboard but doesn’t get to sing solo. Jacob Dickey as Smize’s boyfriend Smiling Face with Sunglasses completes the cast. The actors are all attired in brightly hued, fantastical costumes that faithfully replicate emojis in three dimensions. Costumes were created by Vanessa Leuck, and Bobbie Zlotnik designed hair and wigs.
Emojiland’s set, designed by David Goldstein, is described in press material as a “pixelated jungle gym.” It comprises blocks that serve as both backdrop for projections and platforms where action takes place. Actors pop in and out of doors in the blocks, and Margherita and Steele each descends the long pole on stage. The projections, designed by Lisa Renkel and Possible, represent digital coding as well as familiar screen elements like a progress bar. Additional effects come courtesy of laser lighting—lighting designer Jamie Roderick won an award for his work when Emojiland debuted at NYMF. The props (also created by Possible) look like cardboard cutouts of the emojis for objects, including drinks, a key and a flower.
Between its performances, script and high-tech stagecraft, Emojiland fully realizes the concept of life inside a smartphone. While almost too ebullient at times, the show certainly fulfills the characters’ mantra: “Peace, thumbs-up, pound, okay, high-five”—those are all emojis, BTW—“it’s great to be alive!”
Emojiland runs through March 19 at the Duke (229 W. 42nd St.). Evening performances are at 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday; matinees are at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are available by calling (646) 223-3010 or visiting dukeon42.org..
