Review: A compassionate ‘Transparent’ musical is stymied by its chaotic production

“Transparent,” the groundbreaking Prime Video series about a Los Angeles Jewish family after its patriarch comes out as transgender, came to an unexpected and, for fans like myself, disappointing ending.

After Jeffrey Tambor, the series’ star who played Maura Pfefferman, the parent who makes the late-in-life gender revelation, was fired from the show after allegations of sexual harassment, creator Joey Soloway decided to bring the series to a close with a grand musical finale.

It took me several years to watch this culminating episode and several attempts to get through it. I really didn’t want “Transparent” to end and didn’t understand why the complex world that was built over four seasons was being abruptly ended.

The series may have been conceived around Tambor’s Maura, but I found myself increasingly more interested in the shifting identities of the three mixed-up adult children (played by Amy Landecker, Jay Duplass and Gaby Hoffmann), who were profoundly damaged by all the secrets their family harbored.

You’d think that a theater critic would have been delighted by the idea of a big musical finish. But I wasn’t ready to say goodbye, and I wasn’t assured that the show — part dark comedy, part streaming soap opera — could survive the transformation of genres.

If you loved the way the TV series ended, you’ll no doubt enjoy “A Transparent Musical,” which is having its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum. Joey Soloway, continuing the collaboration with sibling Faith Soloway, has reassembled the Pfefferman family members in a stage musical that takes another crack at the material.

The children have been summoned to their childhood Pacific Palisades home for a brunch, where Maura (Daya Curley) has a big announcement to make over bagels. Struggling to find the words, Maura resorts to a song of somber bluntness: “How to put a name to this / How to put a frame on this / And claim it for myself / I’m transgender.”

The score by Faith Soloway is full of such numbers, which are tasked with either taking care of major plot points or spelling out themes in direct language. The songs often seem closer to recitative, burdened as they are with busy lyrics that seem to be riding generic background music.

Much as I’m sympathetic to the inclusive, compassionate vision of “A Transparent Musical,” I had difficulty seeing beyond the shortcomings in musical theater craft. The upside of inexperience is fearlessness. But a naivety lurks behind the adventurousness. If someone had blindfolded me and brought me to this production, I would have assumed that I was watching a performance by a talented and extremely well-funded amateur troupe in residence at an LGBTQ+ community center that was inspired by the series.

The book by playwright MJ Kaufman and Joey Soloway involves a multitude of storylines revolving around a Jewish community center known as the CJJ JCC. (Mirror-imaging of an imperfect order seems to be a dramaturgical strategy here.) The setting determines not just the physical environment but the performance style of the show. Everyone is welcome, regardless of how well they can carry a tune.

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Characters are introduced and set in motion in the manner of a graphic novel. The writing, for both the book and the songs, boldly outlines the story. But the result lacks the psychological subtlety of the Tony-winning musical “Fun Home,” adapted from Alison Bechdel’s stellar graphic memoir. With its quick-sketch setups, artificial contrivances and punchline resolutions, “A Transparent Musical” may in fact have more in common with 1980s sitcoms.

There simply isn’t enough room to develop all the plot strands. The main one involves Ali (Adina Verson, delivering a strong and sensitive performance), the youngest of the Pfefferman siblings, who is flabbergasted to learn about a hitherto unmentioned gay uncle who was living in Berlin in 1933. A gay relative is hardly a shocker, but Ali is drowning in family secrets and wonders what other vital information has been withheld.

Peppermint (center) and the cast of “A Transparent Musical.”

(Craig Schwartz/All Uses © 2023 Craig Schwartz)

A book in the JCC library, “Berlin’s Third Sex” by Magnus Hirschfeld, unlocks the subculture that Ali’s uncle was presumably part of. Thrilled to read about the innovative research into sex and gender that was taking place in Germany before Hitler tightened his murderous grip on power, Ali travels back in time to meet a relative who blazed a transgender path that Ali will proudly follow as Ari.

While all of this is taking place in dreamlike fashion, there’s a lot of other mishigas and tsuris to get through. Shelly Pfefferman (Liz Larsen, sinking her teeth into the role chomped on by Judith Light in the series) isn’t exactly delighted to see her former husband, dressed in an all-new wardrobe, at the JCC’s Purim festival. (“Who Suffered More,” a duet between them, has fun laying out the festering grievances.)

Eldest daughter Sarah (Sarah Stiles) is noisily waking up to the reality that her marriage, long survived through pharmaceutical means, is no longer sustainable. Josh (Zachary Prince), the middle child, falls hard for Raquel (Murphy Taylor Smith), a bright and emotionally vulnerable rabbi. But his raging sex addiction makes true intimacy a stretch.

Audience members who are already familiar with the television show will be at an advantage. The characters don’t earn their psychological depth anew. It’s mostly borrowed. Watching the stage version of the Pfeffermans put me in mind of the metatheatrical play that’s being rehearsed in the musical finale. This special episode takes place after the untimely death of Maura. Shelly, working out her grief, has cast actors to portray her children and ex-husband. A new set of theatrical substitutes is now giving these kids a try at the Taper.

“A Transparent Musical” brings in other characters from the JCC and its LGBTQ+ group, most notably Davina (played by Peppermint, the first transgender woman to originate a principal role in a Broadway musical) and Ezra (an affecting Kasper). They discover that they’re more than chosen family, but blood ties raise some uncomfortable family history for Davina.

The production is directed by Tina Landau, who has extensive experience wrestling unwieldy plays and musicals into well-packaged shapes. Making full use of the Mark Taper Forum, her staging blurs the boundaries between playing area and audience.

The design, which inevitably breaks out the disco balls, is festively managed. Adam Rigg’s scenic design, Yee Eun Nam’s projections and Jen Schriever’s lighting colorfully differentiate the fluid theatrical geography.

Visually, the work is captivating. But you don’t leave a musical humming the tableaux. This was the first time that I can recall feeling crushing sympathy for an overwhelmed director.

A communal vision is the beneficent goal of “A Transparent Musical.” Soloway and team imagine a utopia seen through a queer-Jewish lens in which the old oppressive order is overturned. At a time when intolerance is being dangerously exploited for political gain, the loving spirit behind this show feels like a necessary corrective. But as an experienced theatergoer, I was taken aback by the artistic shambles on the Taper stage.