Musical Review Part 1: John & Jen

John & Jen. (2022, January 28) | Photo by mtishows.

John and Jen (revival/modern version) is a beautiful musical by Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald which explores the dynamics of family relationships, commitments, and reconciliation; it was one of the best musicals I've seen that pulled my heartstrings. 

The musical is a two-person show focusing on two siblings, John and Jen — their story is told over the span of 50 years through songs sung by the actor (Lewis Cornay) and actress (Rachel Tucker). 

In the first act of the show, the musical introduces John and Jen's relationship as siblings when they were children. The siblings were seen as inseparable growing up and Jen, being the older sister, promises to protect John at all costs including their abusive father. This is illustrated when Jen plays "Teacher" with John and becomes protective when she finds out that their father hits him for breaking a glass. 

As the story progresses, the musical also depicts the normal typical hate-love relationship between siblings; this is shown when Jen becomes a teenager and is now attending high school — she gets annoyed with her younger brother, John, during her basketball game.

Near the end of act one, we begin to see John and Jen's relationship starts to fracture when Jen decides to go away for college in New York, leaving John alone. This was a pivotal moment in the musical because we can see Jen's character development starts to change as a sister as well as John's. Jen becomes more focused on her college life and her boyfriend Jason while John starts to idolize his father whom his older sister dislikes. The story also sheds light on some of the important current events occurring in America such as nine eleven; the musical portrays this through John reading the headlines in the newspapers.  

At the end of act one, John and Jen's relationship falls apart when the sibling has a falling out. John joins the army to fight in a war while Jen moves to Canada with Jason. The sibling relationship finally comes to an end when a tragic event occurs, causing Jen to feel guilty over her brother's death; she felt like she failed to protect John like she had always promised him. 

Moving to act two, the show presents Jen as a new mother with her newborn son. As a tribute to her late brother, Jen names her newborn son after John. The second half of the musical is centered around Jen and John's mother-son relationship and Jen overcoming her struggles. 

In summary, John and Jen is a wonderful musical that touches the audiences' hearts since it was such an emotional roller coaster from beginning to end. Overall, both the actor and actress gave us an amazing performance. The musical was filled with laughter, and the show touched on various themes such as sibling relationships, parental relationships, child abuse, and many more. 

All in all, if you haven't seen this musical yet, I really recommend it and it is now streaming on Broadway HD!