Already Perfect musical at King’s Head Theatre – review

Often in the arts, something deeply personal can take on a universality that touches everybody. Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick… Boom! and Rent are prime theatrical examples of this. Levi Kreis’ three-hander musical is about as personal as it gets: as well as providing script and score, Tennessee-born Tony winner Kreis plays a version of himself, and one of the other characters is him from late teenager to early adulthood. Unfortunately though, if it weren’t for the bluesy, soulful songs and superb musicianship, Already Perfect would be punishingly self-indulgent.

Running at 100 minutes and set, at least initially, in Kreis’ dressing room (nice design by Jason Ardizzone-West) after a disastrous matinee of his Tony-grabbing role (he won in 2010 for playing Jerry Lee Lewis in Million Dollar Quartet on Broadway), the show feels more like two separate entities spliced together than a coherent musical. On the one hand, there’s a soul-searching drama, equal parts syrup and grit, exploring how past mistakes and misfortunes inform a troubled life, and on the other, a collection of songs that, appealing as they are, sound more like a record album than a theatrical score.

At the outset, Levi is about to return to drugs, having just been dumped by yet another unsuitable boyfriend, when his sponsor Ben (Yiftach “Iffy” Mizrahi, charming) enters the dressing room having watched the less-than-stellar matinee. Cue much navel-gazing and breast-beating as Levi relives his religious but unstable upbringing, then his bumpy road to showbiz success by way of brief forays into the worlds of porn and escorting. Levi’s cocky younger self appears (Killian Thomas Lefevre), and the two sides of the character converse and spar.

The dialogue, co-written by Kreis and the show’s director Dave Solomon, has a tendency to sound like a self-help manual plonked onstage, so the brief moments of humour are welcome. Individual elements of Kreis’s story will inevitably resonate with certain audience members, but taken as a whole, Already Perfect feels like a monument to self-obsession as much as to survival, which makes it a little difficult to care…if it weren’t for the songs.

Kreis, like the show itself, works best when musical. He’s an electrifying singer, with a rich, warm sound that seems to be coming from the depths of his soul. Just as you start to lose patience with the script, a beautifully crafted song rolls around and all is well with the show. Lefevre is suitably convincing as Kreis Jr, and doesn’t attempt to sweeten the more unsympathetic traits of the character. The versatile Mizrahi has fun playing a number of figures from Levi’s life, including a lusted-after preacher from his youth (yes, there’s the inevitable, roof-raising gospel number).

The music isn’t inherently theatrical but has a toe-tapping melodiousness and rough-edged authenticity that commands attention. Matthew Antonio Perri’s band and arrangements are world-class, and so are the voices. Solomon’s staging is nimble and reasonably inventive, but ultimately, one can’t help wishing they’d just ditch the script and give us a terrific Levi Kreis concert.