Getting It Wright

To every Batman there is a Robin. Behind every Simon, a Garfunkel.

There's the star of the show and then the guy behind the scenes. A sidekick to support and rally behind the leader when times get rough.

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright and businessman Darwin D. Martin were no exception.

In the early 20th century, when Buffalo-born Martin noticed the beauty of Wright's mission-style architecture and commissioned a series of buildings, a relationship grew that would birth a renaissance for Wright and for Buffalo architecture.

That 32-year relationship is the basis of Randy Kramer's new musical, "Renewing Wright," currently running at the MusicalFare Theatre through April 4.

The musical also tells an abridged history lesson of Wright's Buffalo trifecta: the now demolished Larkin Company Building; Graycliff, the vacation home of Martin and his wife on the shores of Lake Erie; and the Martins' Jewett Parkway home, currently undergoing a major revitalization.

If the thought of a musical based on a famous architect sounds a bit on the kitschy side, it's okay with Kramer, who is also the theater's artistic director. In "Renewing Wright," which he wrote, the goal lies first and foremost in telling an interesting story.

"I don't think of musicals as other people do. I approach them the same way as straight theater. If a story is compelling, it wouldn't matter if it were about a physicist," said Kramer.

The six-person musical is almost entirely sung, and borrows from a few musical genres. Most of the score leans toward a soft rock/pop that's found in much of contemporary musical theater, but occasionally shifts to more traditional musical theater bravado.

MusicalFare and Buffalo theater regular John Fredo steps into the role of Martin with the swagger of a well-established businessman, while Tom Zindle, as the uncharismatic Wright, holds firm with the self-esteem of a Texas oil tycoon.

Early in the show, when Wright is first introduced, he boldly - and hastily - states, "I am that great architect." Later, he assures a naysayer that his now-heralded horizontal homes are superior to the otherwise "old-school monstrosities" of traditional vertical buildings.

Wright certainly wasn't one to handle public relations. He left that up to Martin, whose financial backing was the primary reason Wright's career didn't end prematurely in the early 1900s.

The two, undeniable opposites when it came to matters of decency and common sense, forged ahead with a partnership that often saw Martin picking up the slack financially for Wright's lofty building plans and skyrocketing budgets. Martin's "big brother" generosity was worth it, for he saw a beauty and grace in Wright's distinct style when others didn't.

The toll was eventually taken on Martin's wife, Isabelle, portrayed by another MusicalFare regular, Lisa Ann Ludwig. As the traditional turn-of-the-century housewife, Isabelle is concerned about the family's finances, but puts her foot down when an altered floor plan for their Jewett Parkway house leaves little closet space for her dresses.

Always the gentleman, Wright pointedly offers to design Mrs. Martin smaller dresses to work around his plans.

Ludwig, whose past MusicalFare performances have steered toward the feisty, works well with Fredo. Playing a real-life character is nothing new to Fredo, who recently won acclaim as legendary entertainer Al Jolson in MusicalFare's "Jolson and Company."

Ludwig said that while the process of playing a character that once lived requires a different approach to her performance, she enjoys playing Isabelle to audiences who may or not know anything about Wright or the Martins.

"Audiences have been different. You can tell Wright aficionados from the rest," Ludwig says. "They get it before others do. You get a different vibe (from them)."

Director Doug Weyand puts Kramer's script and score to great use, and does a solid job of keeping the conversations between Wright and Martin vibrant and steadily paced.

Weyand pits the two friendly foes against each other with some very clever staging - aided by Chris Cavanagh's always-reliable lighting - and takes any chance he has to educate audiences.

Hanging center stage on Chris Schenk's beautiful set, a projected screen cleverly displays images of Wright's most famous buildings, as well as helpful timeline markers indicating the year in which the proceeding scene is taking place. (That is perhaps the most helpful of Weyand's methods, since the idea of covering 32 years in two hours is daunting.)

Kramer, in his continuing mission to portray Buffalo as the region's cultural epicenter that it is - or once was - does a fine job with "Renewing Wright." Acting more as a Frank Lloyd Wright missionary than a composer, Kramer is confident that in presenting Wright and Martin's illustrious partnership of the past, Wright's Buffalo landmarks will continue to be studied and visited.

"The present is the reason to write it," Kramer said.

Fredo agrees that Wright's mission, as well as Kramer's efforts to preserve it, serves as the greater goal of "Renewing Wright."

"This is a show we're proud of," said Fredo.