Musical Review: Going Nowhere in Style

“Perfect World,” El Portal Theatre, North Hollywood, Nov. 1 - 9, 2025

Nov. 4, 2025 | By Bruce R. Feldman

In Brief: A professional, polished production that overwhelms the slight story and elusive main character. Still, this new musical has its enjoyable moments.

Charlie Rowan McCain, far left, and the Perfect World ensemble (Photo: Jim Cox Photography)

When my late mother-in-law was 85, my wife and I took her to dinner and a hit show in New York. The restaurant was pricey and the theater tickets we bought were expensive house seats.

Just as the curtain was about to go up, my mother-in-law leaned over to my wife and whispered, “You know what I don’t like about musicals? They always burst into song.”

Of course, they do, but the creators had better have a very good plot or character reason for each number. Otherwise, the songs feel forced. It also doesn’t hurt if the music is tuneful and the lyrics are clever or catchy, or if the actor is a powerhouse performer.

Musical numbers that fail to meet these criteria leave the audience to wonder, “Why are we watching this?”

That’s the question you might be asking yourself at Perfect World, an original musical about Barbara Follett, a child prodigy in the 1920s who published two popular novels while in her teens and then inexplicably vanished at age 25.

Follett created a fantasy world in print – with her own language and imaginary characters – to cope with her quarreling parents, their collapsing marriage, and her unhappy home life. She was famous in her time, though Follett’s books and her life story are forgotten today.

The musical, by librettist and co-lyricist Alan Edmunds and composer and co-lyricist Richard Winzeler, follows her early years as a precocious child author, her transition to troubled adulthood, and the futile nationwide search that took place after she disappeared.

The first act of Perfect World covers Follett’s early years. It’s reasonably engaging, much more so than the show’s pallid second act, thanks in large part to a terrific turn by Charlie Rowan McCain as the young Follett.

From left: Día Day and Charlie Rowan McCain; Gabbie Adner as adult Barbara; Erika Schindele and Michael Deni as Barbara's parents (Photo: Jim Cox Photography)

McCain, a little dynamo, dominates the proceedings whenever she’s on stage, giving a lift to a book, songs, and story that are not as compelling as they might be.

She obviously has been directed to be super cute and animated, delivering the sun-will-come-out-tomorrow performance the creators clearly want. Perhaps she could have offered a nuanced reading of the character. We’ll never know.

In the second act, Gabbie Adner confidently takes over the leading role as an adult, but not before she and McCain sing the Act One closer “It's Up to Me Now.” The number recalls showstoppers like "I’m the Greatest Star” or “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” though it lacks their full power, defiance, or dramatic impact.

The other songs are pleasant but unremarkable. Some are misguided. The tawdry second act opening production number, “The Naughty-cal Life,” is a pointless excercise that seems to exist mainly because the creators thought they should have a splashy way to get things going after intermission.

This was followed, on the other hand, by one of the score’s loveliest tunes, “There's Gotta Be Rain,” in which Anderson cautions Barbara that life is a mixture of sweet and sorrow.

The second act is where the show starts to unwind. Follett and her mother Helen (Erika Schindele) go on a two-year world cruise. She has an unrequited romance with one of the ship’s officers, Anderson (Michael Wells). She returns to America and ends up in a rocky marriage to Nick Rogers (Sammy Linkowski). Finally, 25-year-old Follett leaves home one day never to be seen again.

The performances are solid. Technical credits are first rate. The sets, costumes, lighting, and musical direction are all excellent. Brian Gale’s colorful, appealing illustrations on the backdrop and side screens attempt to show us Follett’s imaginary world.

There’s one final element that both makes and breaks the show. Kay Cole’s vigorous direction and choreography are too big and flashy for this intimate story and gentle leading character. The big Depression-era tap dance numbers try too hard. There’s a chorus of circus characters who come out of the shadows from time to time to do, what? Cole is a pro, and while her work is showy and very enjoyable, it’s just not what the intimate material calls for.

This is an ambitious musical whose songs are pleasant if not memorable, whose lyrics are a little clunky, whose book falls flat in the second act, and whose tone is wrong.

So, why are we watching Perfect World? Even though I enjoyed much of it, I’m not really sure.

“Perfect World,” El Portal Theatre, 5269 Lankershim Blvd., No. Hollywood, PerfectWorldTheMusical.com