A Class Act' tracks the life of Ed Kleban

The first notes of AClass Act are sung by the main character in the seats of a tiny, black theatre in the Boston Center for Arts. He jumps out and continues to dance and sing directly to the audience, the unluckiest of whom sit only four rows away. This is how the story of Ed Kleban (played by John Blackstone) begins.

It does not open with the traditional dazzle that a more famous musical might use. There are no grand costumes, no elaborate dances, nor any pretentious celebrities which can make the musical experience feel like an awkward blind date everyone else said you'd enjoy. But compared to these expensive spectacles, A Class Act is a homemade candlelight dinner with an old friend. You laugh, become nostalgic, and maybe discover feelings you had forgotten about a long time ago.

The musical tracks the life and career of Kleban, the neurotic lyricist of A Chorus Line, who won the Tony and the Pulitzer Prize for his work. The title is rooted in a musical-writing workshop Kleban was involved in. It was through this workshop that the co-librettist of A Class Act, Linda Kline, befriended Kleban and became his "significant other" during the last decade of his life. In the play, the workshop (or the class) gathers for Kleban's memorial. The spirit of Kleban drops by to listen to his friends' comments and is forced by their blunt reflections to evaluate his life.

The Kleban character in the play has youthful and ambitious dreams of writing a Broadway musical. He experiences love affairs, and also struggles with his paranoia of failure. To tell the story, the cast sings the songs that the real Kleban wrote about the very same experiences. They sing about the anticipation they have for their workshops on "Fridays at Four," the date Kleban has "Beside the Fountain in the Garden of the Hospital," and how he realizes that what he had with his high school sweetheart was "The Next Best Thing to Love." Beautiful and true, the songs have an effect that is intimate and touching. There isn't a single false note, rhyme, or emotion in the entire work. Every syllable invites you onto the stage and into the affection Kleban had for music.

Throughout the play, Kleban becomes increasingly frustrated with the lack of success he has as a composer. By the time he dies of cancer at age 48, none of his songs have been performed on Broadway. In his final will, Kleban states, "It is my wish that my friends will arrange for the songs to be performed, preferably in a large building, in a central part of town, in a dark room, as part of a play, with a lot of people listening, who have all paid a great deal to get in. But if my songs are sung for the love of them, I will probably be content."

A Class Act thus becomes a kind of double love letter: the one Kline wrote to present Kleban's music, and the one Kleban sent to the audience. At times you feel as if the cast is not singing at you, but really just for you. It might make you remember the time you watched The Sound of Music, and secretly wished that it was you the blond Austrian boy was singing "Sweet Sixteen" to. Or it might make you discover that you actually do like musicals. But for sure, A Class Act will be refreshing experience and even the grumpiest and most cynical audience member will leave the theatre humming one of the tunes.