‘Lost Cellphone Weekend’ – Book, Music, and Lyrics by Stephen Gilbane. Directed by Image Theater Artistic Director Jerry Bisantz. Lighting Design by John MacKenzie. Sound Design by Stephen Gilbane. Presented by Image Theater at the Richard and Nancy Donahue Family Academic Arts Center, 240 Central Street, Lowell, MA, through February 10.
By Mike Hoban
Don Birnham is a guy with a monkey on his back. But it’s not booze or pills or the needle. It’s social media, and it’s not only killing him, it’s destroying society as a whole. That’s the message of Lost Cellphone Weekend, a new musical comedy receiving its world premiere at the Richard and Nancy Donahue Family Academic Arts Center in Lowell. And while one could certainly make a persuasive argument for the ills that smartphones are inflicting on society (ask any educator who’s trying to teach a classroom full of cellphone-addicted kids), we’re not likely to do it in as entertaining a fashion as Lost Cellphone Weekend.
Not-so-loosely–based on the 1940 Film Noir classic The Lost Weekend, which starred Ray Milland as an alcoholic writer, Lost Cellphone tells the story of smartphone addict Don Birnham (Kenny Meehan) and the efforts of his girlfriend Helen (Diane Meehan) to help him kick his addiction to social media. She books “A Quiet Little B&B” in Vermont, where there is no cellphone service, and his nightmare begins after she confiscates all of his hidden cell phones. Like an alcoholic in denial, he’s convinced that he doesn’t have a problem – as he sings of the joy of being “Connected” in the song of the same name.
When Helen slips away for a little shopping trip, he’s left alone and frantically searches for a digital connection. He heads to the hotel bar, where he meets bartender Nat (Boston fringe favorite Phil Thompson), who has fled Boston to get away from the disconnection that has befallen society due to obsessive screen time, “I decided I gotta work in a place where people still talk to each other, face to face,” he tells Don, before launching into the comic but apocalyptic “The Downfall of Man” (which “Will be that screen right in your hand!.)” Enter the sexy Gloria (Casey Moore), who’s got eyes for Don, but all he’s interested in is her cell phone, which she laments in her number, “Put That Thing Down (and Kiss Me!).”
The plot closely mirrors that of Lost Weekend. The clever dialogue could have been lifted straight out of a Raymond Chandler novel, updated to reflect the material (“Booze doesn’t hold a candle to the sweet nectar of posting a wise-crack and watching comment after comment roll in like a jazz saxophone riff breaking over you in waves of snarky validation!”) Playwright/Composer Stephen Gilbane, frames the parody with a subplot of two old musical theater collaborators Jake (Thompson) and Stan (David Hansen) getting back together to write a musical that will be “a searing indictment of how technology has used secret algorithms to hijack the pleasure centers of our brains.”
The cast pulls off the noir style (and the musical numbers) with aplomb, and the show works well as both a comedy and a warning. Most of the laughs in the script (and there are plenty) come from a place of identification, as one guesses that there weren’t a lot of folks in the audience who haven’t experienced a bolt of panic when they realize they left their cell phone at home as they were driving to work. The show packs a lot into 60 minutes while accomplishing the mission of its fictional creators, Stan and Jake: Make a message piece, but make it entertaining. Mission accomplished. For tickets and information, go to: https://www.imagetheater.com/lost-cellphone-weekend-info.
