The creators of Home Street Home want to go to places where musicals haven't been, but even they know that the road they are traveling is still a branch off a familiar highway. "Well, this looks nothing like Rent, " says one of the musical's omniscient overseers who regularly insert themselves into an unfolding story that does in fact look a little like Rent. And American Idiot. And Hair. And even West Side Story. You almost expect to hear a variation on "Officer Krupke" as a beat patrolman hassles the neighborhood delinquents by name.
Except in this case, it's Officer Walker, and his beat includes a makeshift family of outcasts, runaways, druggies, prostitutes, and sexual outliers. Unbeknownst to him, one of those runaways is his teenage daughter, whom he regularly molested before she found refuge with a new family. Sue's story is the centerpiece, but the musical gives voice to all of the residents of the rundown squat they call home.
Their stories may not be the typical stuff of musical theater, but Home Street Home follows traditional structures even as the characters sing about S&M sex, the wonders of recreational drugs, abusive parents and siblings, and even ritualized bloodletting. The songs themselves are disarmingly accessible, surprising for their punk-rock pedigree.
Michael Burkett, better known as Fat Mike of the band NOFX, composed the music that occasionally breaks out into mosh-pit mayhem but mostly conforms to melodies that are easy on most any ears. The book is by Fat Mike and professional dominatrix Goddess Soma (also the astute costumer), who are also partners in life, and the lyrics add Tony Award-winner Jeff Marx (Avenue Q) into the mix. This trio has been working on Home Street Home for four years, and after numerous readings and workshops, its San Francisco run at Z Space is its first official production that its creators view as a tryout for a possible New York presentation.
The production at Z Space is already a polished affair, cast with talented professionals from both coasts and accompanied by a slick five-piece band led by David O. Caite Hevner Kemp's set is built around multi-purpose scaffolding that director Richard Israel makes limber use of with his skillful staging. The staging is also relatively circumspect, as sex is mostly suggested, with even a flogging scene between a dom and her sub avoiding any wince-inducing intensity.
Where the musical is most graphic is in its lyrics, as a song such as "Let's Get Hurt" enumerates on various masochistic desires, but with the cast then coming back with the spryly comic "They're At It Again" as another round of flogging begins. The lyrics, throughout, are a highlight of the show, with the clever "High Achievers" detailing how famous great minds were often chemically enhanced, the whimsically blunt "It's Not Easy Being Gay" elaborating on a particular character's physical shortcomings, or the poetically restrained "Monsters" expressing Sue's abuse at the hands of her father. What the songs could use are more prominent buttons, the kind of musical signal that's the difference between a song that finishes rather than one that merely stops.
Every cast member is able to create a memorable character, and most get one or more showcase songs to further establish their quirky individuality. Among the players are Kristin Piacentile as the dom Mom, Lauren Patten as her collared sub Trashley, Justine Magnusson as the runaway Sue, Kevin Hegmann as punk hustler PD, Ryan O'Connor as his woebegone client Big John, Alex Robert Holmes as the happily dopey Special Ed, and Matt Magnusson as the frustrated musician Nosmo. Billed as the Fatales (a takeoff on the Fates of Greek mythology), Shaleah Adkisson, Brandon Curry, and Sam Given merrily shift between regal spirits and their earthly disguises as ragged street-people.
In its current incarnation, Home Street Home is a show that's in good shape. But it has the curious inclination to be an edgy show with smoothed edges, a show about rule-breakers that follows many musical theater rules. There are some boxes to be blown up before Home Street Home can find its very own footing.
Home Street Home will run at Z Space through March 7. Tickets are $50-$75. Call (866) 811-4111 or go to homestreethomeonstage.com.