"Big Machine" delivers a daring critique of technology and humanity’s desires in a Fringe Fest highlight

If Colin Healy’s musical “Big Machine” were an automobile, it would be the lovechild of the Tucker 48, the Edsel and the Nash Metropolitan. That’s an apt description for this new musical – based on true events – with music, lyrics and book by Healy about the dangers of leaded gasoline, unchecked capitalism, the foul underbelly of American car culture and the notion that there’s always better living through chemistry. If those seem like unconventional themes for a musical, it’s because “Big Machine,” presented by Fly North Theatricals and directed by Bradley Rohlf, is an unconventional, non-conforming, challenging new musical. So be prepared. It’s a musical about pollution and the personalities (both willing and unwitting) behind it. And it’s worth the journey if you can check your normal expectations and definitions of a musical at the door.

“Big Machine” is a fine choice to be one of the headlining productions of this year’s STL Fringe Fest, an annual celebration of boundary-pushing, innovative performing arts that offers a platform for diverse voices and experimental works which challenge conventions and spark creative conversations. Fringe Fest’s theatrical offerings emit off-off-Broadway vibes (feel free to add as many offs as necessary), and “Big Machine” is well within that wheelhouse.

“Big Machine” is not an emotional journey, at least not in the same way a more traditional musical is. It’s more of a cerebral exercise. Even though it has interwoven plotlines involving love and attraction in multiple forms, “Big Machine” is best understood as a made-in-America tragedy of Greek-like proportions that wreaks revenge on the characters representing the culprits behind the toxic leaded gasoline that Americans blindly poured into automobiles for decades. It also explores the havoc on those who helped manufacture it – from the board room of General Motors Chemical to the bedroom of a widowed factory worker.  

It’s a story worth telling. It could be an “Erin Brockovich,” “Norma Rae,” “Silkwood” or “Dark Waters” type drama. Instead, Healey has made the subject worth singing about. One of the most satisfying aspects of “Big Machine” is seeing how He pushes the envelope of the musical artform. The culprits get their comeuppance, but Healey renders them with a modicum of empathy because they, too, are caught up in the metaphorical “big machine” of profit-pumping capitalism.

The final number, “Alone,” reaches for and delivers a devastating epiphany, especially as sung with true despair and tragic pathos by Al Bastin as the lead character, Thomas Midgely Jr. This moment of catharsis examines the corrosive consequences of technology, human desires and identities. Bastin shed tears by song’s end.

Unlike Ethyl gasoline, which was developed in part to eliminate engine knocking, “Big Machine” can be a bit of a rough ride before it reaches that climactic number. Healey is a clever writer. His ability to create rhymes that mention chemical compounds, machine parts, dead spouses and labor unionization is impressive. At its best, that cleverness often slyly creeps upon you, as in rhyming big machine and Holocene. Depending on how you like your cleverness, the songs can sometimes have a self-referential, annoying, “hey, look at me” quality.

Unless you read up on the history of lead poisoning from the Romans to the Elizabethans to the 20th century, it’s not clear until the end of Act I that the musical is about a gasoline product called Ethyl (not to be confused with a character by the same name). That reveal could have come earlier without sacrificing the rest of Act 1’s flow and would have made the opening number live up its name, “It Works.”

Similarly, it’s either interesting or perplexing why the plotline is non-linear. For instance, Act 2 begins with a flashback to five years earlier. And even though the number, “The Miracle of Corn,” was as inventive as it was corny (in a fun way), it could have occurred in Act 1. Pondering Healey’s choices can be one of the charms of this production.

Healey’s songs range in topic from the “Communist Manifesto” to the pitiful plight of middle management, and he manages, with the help of the cast’s lively and heartfelt performance, to make that variety work thematically. The songs incorporate a variety of influences, from Eubie Blake in the 20s (think “I’m Just Crazy About Harry”) to Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s "Dear Evan Hansen" with its exploration of anxiety, social media and identity. The songs often jump abruptly from one influence to another, challenging the audience to make the sudden transition within the song. This occurs too often not to be a choice to consciously keep pulling the audience out of our comfort zone.

Among the cast, Bastin is the unlikeable huckster hero who opens and closes the show with high-octane performances – until the last number, which either redeems him a bit or raises his pitiable quotient. Delivering the most consistent and endearing character is Lili Sheley, who animates her character, Rosie, with a blend of humor, lustiness and optimism.

Another noteworthy song is Act 1’s duet “Alone, Together,” sung beautifully by Parker Miller. His character, the widower and father Ernest Olson, is a complex, hard-drinking sad sack. Miller’s performance is played deeply deadpan to the point that you might want to scream out – just emote already! But this delivery is a choice, and the fact that one wants to scream points toward its effectiveness as well as contributes to another instance of this musical’s unconventionality. His counterpart in “Alone, Together” is Ethyl, sung by Mack Holtman who crushes the part with confidence and compassion.

Playing Ernest’s young daughter, Grace, is Maliah Strawbridge, who impressively holds her own with the adults in the cast. Her duet with Miller, “Can You Imagine,” is a touching blend of sentimentality and the joys of being a STEM kid.

Among the performers playing multiple roles, Michael Reitano’s Carl Lowig in the “Crazy (A Brief History)” stands out. Reitano enthusiastically animates the German chemist known for his contributions to the field of chemistry in the 19th century – as unlikely as that may seem possible.

Choreographer Jordan Woods, set designer Caleb Long and costumer designer Eileen Engel effectively align their efforts to maximize the small stage at The Marcelle, one of the region’s best black box theater spaces. In each of their disciplines, their work fits well with the show’s themes and the limited space.

It’s not always a smooth ride with a few slips of the clutch, but “Big Machine” is still a worthy musical road trip on a journey through big issues. So be prepared to drive home with something serious to think about rather than a song to hum to.  

Fly North Theatricals’ “Big Machine” at The Marcelle Theater runs through August 18 as part of the STL Fringe Fest. Visit the Fly North web site for more information.