It goes without saying that the soul of any musical is music.  The Total Bent, however, is not a traditional song-and-dance musical, where characters directly express themselves through lyrics. The Total Bent is more like This Is Spinal Tap; about the creation and production of music, that also includes loads of original music.  The Total Bent is a play whose definition is a bit ambiguous.

Sadly, the weakest link in this entire performance is the music.  In the first act, the first performed song is very direct in its lyrics to the point of dullness.  This first song is about the main character and his life until the point where the show begins. This song is performed by what you think would be some sort of narrator, but the performer never shows up again to narrate.  Besides, this narration just doesn’t need to be in song.  The song is lyrical, but not poetic in any aspect.  The rest of the songs in act one are just as bland, boring, and extremely redundant.  The songs that they perform are just not in the voices of the characters while they’re acting.  The playwright and the lyricist were definitely not on the same page during the show’s creation.

The set is beautifully arranged to look like a recording studio with some instruments lying around.  Unlike most theaters that have the entire audience facing the same direction, the Public Theater takes advantage of the seating of three sides facing inwards, giving the stage great depth with much more realistic visuals, allowing the actors to move more freely in what looks and feels more like a room than a facade. The only downside on the set arrangement is that it has instruments galore, but each instrument is used maybe two or three times each.  This is pretty unfortunate because most of the pre-recorded songs played use all or most of the shown instruments. For example, there are two pianos and one clavinet, and the grand piano in the back is completely useless because there is only one pianist.  The grand piano is not even such a prominent piece of the set, since it’s so far back on the stage.

The story is about gospel singer Marty Roy (William Jackson Harper) of Montgomery, who begins to grow tired of singing religious songs.  He decides to quit working for his producer father (Vondie Curtis-Hall) and goes off to write his own album.  His father then publicly challenges him to release and produce an album within five weeks, but Marty can’t seem to get even a single song out of him.  When he hires a new producer (David Cale), the new producer wants him to get back to his roots of gospel, believing it will make more successful music.  The story is pretty archetypal, but it’s an archetype that’s plenty enjoyable.

By act two, when the producer is hired, the music actually seems to get a whole lot better.  I can’t tell if it’s intentional, but if it is, I could give much more respect to the writer.  At the time I watched the show, I didn’t seem to notice that.  Not only do the on-set instruments have more use (not full use) in the second act, but they’re used really damn well, but that’s just for two songs.  That’s right, for almost the entirety of the show, only two songs feature most of the instruments in use.  It’s a little sad, since none of the instruments were ever used to their full advantage, especially in a show that’s dedicated to music production.

By the end of the show, it gets confusingly surreal to a point I can’t truly explain.  So much goes on, yet because of how confusing it is, it actually gets boring.  They’re jumping around and dancing and such, but not a single moment of any of that is all too interesting.

Don’t get me wrong, this show has some moments that reach a euphoria between the actor and the audience, but it’s almost parabolic in its greatness.  If you’re looking for some fantastic acting, energetic music, and a simple little plot, The Total Bent is most definitely your kind of show.  However, if you’re looking a show with plenty of live performance, you’ll just have to look someplace else.